After a very long spell of signs from the northeastern states we finally return to the heartland of America, where one could argue the hunt for mathematically significant roadsigns may be harder as is life in general, with this first sign from Wyoming. This is also the first white informational sign to show it’s mathematical connections. During the summer this sign lies dormant, but in winter when large amounts of snow dump into the Black Hills this sign plays a crucial role, protecting drivers as they voyage into the higher elevations. Randy Weiss brings this sign to us from an amazingly long road trip.
I haven’t done the analysis, but I suspect that the square root function is the most commonly used function in roadsigns. Here the square is very identifiable.
\sqrt {16} = 4
This sign is found just as you leave Newcastle, WY and head into the Black Hills. The GPS coordinates are approximately N43 50 56.0 W104 11 02.1. See sign on map!
2 responses so far ↓
1 Randy Weiss // Sep 9, 2005 at 10:57 pm
2 Road Sign Math // Sep 10, 2005 at 7:13 am
http://www.roadsignmath.com/archive/2005/09/08/WisconsinBorder.aspx
This is explicitly the type of sign rule #4 was intended to modify. I’ve considered removing rule #4 and simply requiring the use of any and all numbers due to the difficulty in interpreting it, but have never felt strong enough about it to actually remove it.
Here are other examples:
Flashing Root
http://www.roadsignmath.com/archive/2005/02/21/SimpleRoot.aspx
Chaos In Three Miles
http://www.roadsignmath.com/archive/2005/03/05/ChaosInThreeMiles.aspx
(although Chaos technically even adds up with the unused numbers!)
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