Leigh Mercer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leigh Mercer (1893–1977) was a noted British wordplay and recreational mathematics expert. He is best known for devising the celebrated palindrome "A man, a plan, a canal — Panama!".^[1]

The following mathematical limerick is attributed to him:^[2]

${\frac {12+144+20+3{\sqrt {4}}}{7}}+(5\times 11)=9^{2}+0$

This is read as follows:

A dozen, a gross, and a score

Plus three times the square root of four

Divided by seven

Plus five times eleven

Is nine squared and not a bit more.

References

↑ Published in Notes and Queries, 13 Nov. 1948, according to The Yale Book of Quotations, F. R. Shapiro, ed. (2006, ISBN 0-300-10798-6).
↑ "Math Mayhem". Lhup.edu. Retrieved 2011-06-29.

Persondata
Name	Mercer, Leigh
Alternative names
Short description	British wordplay and recreational mathematics expert
Date of birth	1893
Place of birth
Date of death	1977
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.