It seems very common to find math in road signs that are around colleges and universities. Mayville State University didn’t want to be left out and put the hint directly on the off-ramp as you head towards the city of Mayville. Mayville and Portland are interesting towns, if not a bit presumptuous. A visit to their website boasts ”The Way America Is Supposed To Be”. I’m a native of North Dakota and this tagline intrigued me. A quick look at the demographics of Mayville tell us, at least how Mayville and Portland citizens, think America is supposed to be? First off, it is 97.49% white. 46% of households are married couples. Only 6.6% of households are without a father. Median income for a household is $34,635. 13.4% of the population lives below the poverty line. This is how America is supposed to be? I don’t think so.

Photo had to be cropped at a high “zoom” and was taken at speed through a window.
Apologies in advance for the quality.

A departure from the plague of square root functions found on signs in recent weeks, this sign presents simple, “Mom & Apple Pie” arithmetic for us to enjoy.

This sign is found on exit 111 on I-29 heading south from Grand Forks, the exit for Cummings and Mayville. The GPS coordinates are approximately N47 29 57.0 W97 05 16.2. See sign on map!

After driving for hours in North Dakota with little success in finding mathematically significant roadsigns I stumbled upon these little signs along the side of the road. They are interesting because they are placed by the highway department, but they appear to be house numbers. While cruising down US-2, after figuring these signs out, it was a fun find! These little signs are an interesting subsection of Road Sign Math.

The math here is easily overlooked due to the size difference in the numbers, but a little quick subtraction and you realize it’s essentially a 4, 2 sign.

This sign is found on US-2 heading east towards Grand Forks. The GPS coordinates are approximately N47 55 59.3 W97 11 20.0. See sign on map!

North Dakota is the home of the founder of Road Sign Math. It is with great pleasure, and difficulty, that North Dakota makes it’s debut with a mathematically significant roadsign. After driving for nearly one thousand miles through North Dakota and not seeing a single sign that had a mathematical relationship it was a delight to finally find a sign, however lacking in glamour, that was a winner! This very flat, and somewhat barren state, seems to be challenging to those that live in it as well as those that seek mathematics inside of it.

Continuing it’s popularity the square root function shows up again. While this is a rather “plain Jane” sign, it was still very exciting to find after hours of searching.

\sqrt{4} = 2

This sign is found on US-2 heading east towards Grand Forks where it intersects with highway 18, providing a connection to county road 4. The GPS coordinates are approximately N47 56 48.6 W97 37 25.2. See sign on map!

Ed.: North Dakota marks the 20th state to appear on Road Sign Math! We are on a wonderful march to bring every state in America to the website!