Road Sign Math

Massachusetts brings us another mathematically significant roadsign, delivered from the wary eyes of Road Sign Math superstar David Slauenwhite. The city that brings us this sign is known as “Whip City”. Interestingly enough, in the 1800’s this city was the prominent supplier of buggy whips to the entire country. If you needed to get a few more horsepower out of that horse-drawn buggy of yours, you needed a whip from Westfield, Mass. The Van Deusen, H. M. Whip Company is listed on the national register of historical places! Additionally this sign has been bothered by vandals. The larger plate is intended to be on the top, however it appears that somebody had tore it down at some point and it was put back in place looking a bit more disheveled.

At 8 numbers this sign presents an interesting and unique challenge and it is obvious at first look that there is some relationship. Just take a look at that exponent! The complicated mechanics in the power of the 14 below is just a really challenging way of expressing the number 2.

Another solution is proposed as well for those that do not appreciate the exponentry of it all. This solution, while being completely workable, is not quite as clean since it simply cancels challenging numbers out of the sign into a couple of 1’s, a bit of mathematic trickery if you ask many.

This sign is found in Westfield, Massachusetts where US 20 East joins US 202 and Mass. 10 for a congested triplex through downtown. The GPS coordinates are approximately N42 07 08.6 W72 44 54.9. See sign on map!

Ed.: With this sign Massachusetts joins the now four-way tie for 3rd place with four winning signs!