Road Sign Math

Way way back I used to work in fast food. This was a very long time ago. I had to be at work at about 6am to help get the food ready for the day. It involved lots of cooking and stirring and prepping. Which is very boring.

So I used to entertain myself by looking at the numbers on the food boxes -- you know, a box might be lot number 5572. So first I'd add all the numerals together, then I'd multiply them, then I'd add one, multiply the next, add the next, then I'd split them into two strings of numbers and add those together, etc. This helped the time pass while I was prepping food and sweeping the floor.

The point is not that I'm a complete and utter nerd, though I am. The point is that I had an immediate affinity for Road Sign Math at http://www.roadsignmath.com , which describes itself as a "A site dedicated to identifying roadsigns that have mathmatical signficance." These are signs that might have have a 2 and a 3 over a 5, or a 4 over a 16 (4 being the square root of 16), etc.

The site is set up like a 'blog, with each entry containing a picture of a sign, and then an explanation of why it's Road-Sign-Math worthy. The commentary is charming in its geekery; I loved the sentences like "The math on this sign is so elegant. It is straightforward and seductively laid out."

Unfortunately this is a very lightly-populated blog; there are only 12 entries with the last one being an April Fools' joke. Fire up your cameras and send them some signage. But don't forget to read up on the rules at http://www.roadsignmath.com/articles/Rules.aspx .

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