Friday, March 12, 2010

The Square Root of a Duck

Random wanderings on the internet bring up interesting findings. For example, someone on Yahoo Answers asked "What is the square root of a duck?"

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Even more interesting than the question were some of the answers.
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See for yourself:

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Answer #1, given by Questor

D=500 (roman numeral)

u=(.000001) (prefix of of millionth)

C=100 (roman numeral)

K=1000 (metric system)

so

DuCK = (500)(.000001)(100)(1000)

=(5x10^2)(1x10^-7)(10^2)(10^2)(10^8)

=5x10^1

=50

sqrt*50= +/- 7.07

And you may add the inverse of Duck is roasted duck lying on its back in spices and sauce. (kind of makes me hungry, what's for dinner?)

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Answer #2, given byDylan:
Well, I'm sure you've heard 2+2=fish, so a fish=4, so the square root of fish is 2.
Ducks and fish are closely related, they both live in/on lakes, both have 4 letters and are both part of the canine family. So the square root of a fish must be very close to 2.
Therefore the square root of a duck is 2.2
Dylan cites his source as: Personal experience in being a duck.
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Answer #3, given by 3k1yp2:
I disagree with Dylan. I have been a duck and a fish, and ducks and fish are very different. I can make blow kisses to everyone when I'm a fish, but not when I'm a duck.
When I'm a duck I have an indescribable desire to wiggle by butt. So butt wiggling considered, and also considering that a duck has only 2 wings (unless it is a dragon duck) so... the square root of a duck must be 7.
Yes, 7. But not seven. Just 7.
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There were a few other answers given, but I felt those 3 were the most worth posting.
Do you have a better answer? (Mike, you should take this as a direct challenge.)

3 comments:

Mike Hugo said...

Della,

The answer is so simple I thought you would have figured it out yourself.

DUCK is obviously a number written in base 36 instead of base 10 like we use. Maybe the original writer of the question has 18 fingers on each hand. But I digress.

If you convert DUCK from base 36 to base 10 you get 645,860. The square root of 645,860 is 803.6541544719345. To keep this simple we will round the number off to just 803.65. Next we convert 803.65 back to base 36, giving us MB.O. Therefore, the square root of DUCK is MB.O (The math is correct)

Now had you asked what is the difference between a duck, the answer would have of course been that one of his feet is both the same. You can ask Drew, I think he'll back me up on that.

lekiM

Della Hill said...

Of course! How did I not get that mayself?! Thanks Mike.
I do have to argue with you on one point. Just because Drew backs you up on something does not necessarily validate it.
Not arguing the duck issue, just your reference for validation.
:)
-Della

Lillian Wilkinson said...

You can trust me, I'm a doctor. I even have a t-shirt that says so. -- Drew