Road Sign Math

Another sign from Pennsylvania? Absolutely! This sign comes to us just outside of Mansfield, PA. Mansfield should hold a special place in the heart of any football fans, however, most probably don’t even know why! In 1892, the very first night football game ever was played in Mansfield. Now, each September the game is reenacted during the 1890s Weekend. This sign is courtesy of David Slauenwhite.

This sign finds it’s math in what Pennsylvania “roadgeeks” call little white signs (however it is noted that they are actually a bit more grey). These signs have two numbers, the first indicating the route and the second indicating the segment number. Mathematical relationships in these signs will be relatively rare because there are only two numbers, and segment numbers are generally in increments of 10. This little white sign is our very first factorial only sign (Euler? Anybody? Euler? used a factorial in it’s solution, but along with many other things). This sign also uses a larger factorial than I though we would ever find. The next factorial would equal 5,040, a number that would be very, very unlikely to be on a road sign.

This sign is found in Pennsylvania on where US 6 about 2.5 miles west of Mansfield. Frequent visitors to Road Sign Math will take note that there have been a number of signs found on the Grand Army of the Republic Highway. This amazing road winds 405 miles across the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier, and has many tributes to mathematically significant signs. The GPS coordinates for this sign are approximately N41 47 35.4 W77 07 22.2. See sign on map!