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I thought this was wonderfully clever. Standard limerick form: first, second, and fifth lines are longer, and similar in rhyme and meter; third and fourth lines are shorter, and similar in rhyme and meter. The toughest part is figuring out how the first and last lines rhyme.
joanna ·
Mike? I know it’s like asking someone to explain the punchline of a joke, but I don’t get this limerick. Could you solve the equation and show your work? Mathematically Challenged,
Joanna
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mike (author) ·
As an example: one line might be, “divided by seven,” and the next might begin, “plus. . .”
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joanna ·
Thanks, Professor Edwards.
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bradley ·
Okay, I see how two lines rhyme: “divided by seven” and “five times eleven” but that’s as far as I’m getting and I don’t know if I wanna try any harder.
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mike (author) ·
Bradley’s got it: the third and fourth lines are
and, well, OK, I’ll point out that a synonym for 20 rhymes with “four,” which might indicate that there are other synonyms in the first line, as well – like for 144 and 12.
(And for the last line: what’s a one-syllable word for ‘equals’?)
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bradley ·
Score! Gross! Dozen!
line one: one dozen, one gross and one score line two: plus three times the square root of four line three: divided by seven line four: plus five times eleven line five: equals 9 squared and no more!
That must be it! Right?!?!?! It works, I think.
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mike (author) ·
Absolutely right on target, my friend. Perhaps rhythm’s a matter of personal taste – I’m kinda partial to
A dozen, a gross and a score Plus three times the square root of four Divided by seven Plus five times eleven Is nine squared and not a bit more.
So yeah, you totally got it. I so totally love the idea of math limericks, and I want to invent some, but I have no idea whatsoever where I’d begin. Does that take a sudoku kind of brain?
What do you think, Joanna?
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joanna ·
Quote the Howard: “Not a bit more. . . .”
Seriously, I’m impressed with both of you–it’s like you’re bilingual, writing poems with words and numbers.
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bradley ·
I didn’t even try to get the meter. I was just trying to make sense of the dang thing. If it takes a sodoku brain to make these things up, don’t call me Will Shortz or however he spells his name. It was quite exciting to get it though. I felt smart!
I didn’t get the one syllable for equals part until now.
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joanna ·
You get humility points, Brad.
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Chris ·
The really impressive thing is that it does, of course, equate the way it says it does. I could probably string together numbers and mathematical operators into euphonious phrases, but to actually have it be correct…wow.
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