RAY: Hi! We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappett Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and, uh, the answer to last week's mathematically poetic Puzzler.
TOM: Yeah. That was an interesting juxtaposition of things, huh? Mathematics and poetry, if you want to call it poetry.
RAY: Well, yeah. In a manner of speaking.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: OK. I'm going to give you the mathematical equation, and the Puzzler is to turn this equation into a limerick. So, it must have the proper meter you know, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da, and the band at the Waldorf Astoria.
TOM: And the band at the Waldorf Astoria. It's got to end like that!
RAY: If only we could have made it end like that, it would have been a perfect Puzzler! Anyway, here's the equation. Get your pencil.
TOM: I'm going to get one, yeah.
RAY: OK. Here's the numerator of a fraction. 12 plus 144 plus 20 plus three times the square root of four. That's the numerator. Draw the line. That's divided by seven. Add to that whole thing five times 11.
TOM: Mmm-hmm.
RAY: And that expression equals nine squared plus zero.
TOM: Plus zero. Isn't, the plus zero.
RAY: And as a hint, I gave you the last line of the limerick, which goes, is nine squared and not a bit more, which is the nine squared plus zero.
TOM: Not, and not a bit more.
RAY: Are you ready for the --
TOM: Plus zero.
RAY: Are you ready for the answer?
TOM: Yeah. I love this.
RAY: A dozen, a gross, and a score, plus three times the square root of four. Are you with me so far?
TOM: I'm with you.
RAY: Divided by seven, plus five times 11 is nine squared, and not a bit more.
TOM: Ah! A dozen, a gross, and a score.
RAY: And of course, you can do it. It works, right? A dozen is 12, a gross is 144, a score is 20.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: Plus three times the square root of four, which is Ñ
TOM: Literal, and there it is.
RAY: -- three times two, which is six. Divided by seven, plus five times 11, is 81.
TOM: Nine squared, and not a bit more.
RAY: Who's our winner, man?
TOM: And the band at the Waldorf Astoria.
RAY: The winner is Lynn Klein from Oxford, England, or Pennsylvania. Oxford, Pennsylvania, and for having --
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
