Friday, July 31, 2009

A Math Puzzle

Given there is a word T that completes all these equations:
3x4=T
4x5=T
8+4=T
T-8=T
then .... Where are you?

Answer:
Princeton, Louisiana, where the value that is T is pronounced twe'h or twe'eh, twe'h being the lesser and twe'eh being the greater. They both sound the same to my old Yankee ears, except twe'eh has a hint of nasality at the apostrophe which you don't hear in "twe'h." A nod and a wink, no doubt, to the missing N.

At least that's the way it sounds to me, and I am known for my twe'eh-twe'eh hearing. This morning my breakfast cost me "si' dollah an' twe'h cen." I still wouldn't know for sure how much that was, except I got thirteen dollars and eighty-eight cents back from the twe'eh I paid with.

Corollary:
Any culture where one number is a homonym of another number deserves its low standardized test scores.