English Equation (not in the FAQ)

Had a quiz sheet with a bunch of English Equations on them.

Got all of them

William Blunn asks about:

I bet M = miles and the other two are place names, one of which is the place where the author of this question lives, making it hard for anyone not from around there.

The first T B that comes to my mind is Tampa Bay, but I don't see any significant-sized S place at about the right distance from it.

Of course, M could also be minutes, but nothing comes to mind that way, and anyway you'd expect the composer to write '3 = H' rather than '180 = M' in that case.

The distance from Superior (WI) to Thunder Bay (ON) is reasonably close to 180 miles, I think.

Robert Israel This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Department of Mathematics http://www.math.ubc.ca/~israel University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada

That's pretty good.

I'll point out your answer to them.

I have come across another answer in the meantime:

180 Miles from Source to Thames Barrier

Googling on that text reveals a thing called the Thames Path which runs from the source of the Thames to the Thames Barrier for a distance of 180 miles.

This answer just about fits into the possible general knowledge set of people in the target population

Map24 (www.uk.map24.com) shows the distance as 195.44 miles along the road (Highway 61), and 176.72 miles as the crow flies.

Close enough I'd say

Minutes from sunset to total blackness?

Bill Smythe

Cheers - Ian

William Blunn:

Mark Brader:

Bill Smythe:

As the number would then depend on the date, the latitude, *and* the interpretation of 'total', this seems a highly unsatisfactory suggestion.

I can't think what it could be but in the UK 180 or One Hundred and Eighty ! speaks darts.. the maximum, score, treble, bed? I can't piece it together. Just a thought!

180 metres from Southwark to Tower Bridge?

Tim