It’s safest to put ( ) around the (5 x 11)
Then for sure the arithmetic is correct.
Is a photographic memory something you are born with ?
Orrrr ….
Or does it take time to develop ?
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Just heard Gyles Brandreth recounting how he had a weekly call with Barry Cryer, who was recently concerned he didn’t have too long left and mentioned he’d stopped buying green bananas…
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Apparently, if your girlfriend or wife ever says “if anything happens to me, I want you to meet someone new…”
“anything” doesn’t include getting stuck in traffic
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I most certainly did!
@Don apply BEDMAS (BODMAS) and, if you do exactly what the limerick says, you’d apply the division to the 4 x √4 before adding the 12, 144 and 20.
Perhaps this:
If you first sum a dozen, gross and score
Add a further three times root 4
Divide result by seven
Plus 5 times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more
I think that BODMAS assumes brackets ( ) are implied to both the numerator and denominator where a horizontal line exists.
With the numbers above the line, you would first do 3xSqRt4 ie 6. Then sum the 12 + 144 + 20 + 6, followed by division by 7.
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The order of evaluation is as follows
Square root of four
multiply by 3
add 12, 144 and 20
ALL these are ABOVE the division line so then the result of above is divided by 7
THEN
5 x 11
add the results together.
=81
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Woman in bed with her lover, when she hears the key in the lock downstairs.
“Oh no it’s my husband, quick hide in the bathroom” she whispers to her naked paramour. He doesn’t need telling twice and scarpers into the bath, pulling the shower curtain behind him.
Just in time too, as the husband comes into the bedroom to find his wife naked in the bed.
“Blimey, this is a nice welcome” he exclaims
“Oh yes”, she says, “I thought you’d like a proper welcome home!”
“I would, I really would”, he says, “but first I need to freshen up” and heads straight for the bathroom. Noticing the shower curtain is drawn, he pulls it to one side, discovering a naked stranger standing in the bath.
“What the hell are you doing here?” He shouts.
“Council!” Says the fella in the bath and starts clapping his hands as if trying to catch something. “We had a complaint about moths and I’m in here to catch them”.
“But you’re stark bollock naked” says the husband.
“Oh the little bastards!”
(Cheers Barry)
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Sure - the diagram is correct - but the limerick doesn’t apply bedmas!
Or…
4 √ 3 x 12 + 144 + 20 + 7 / 5 <ent> 11 x +
In RPN.
Yahhhh… I know…
But the limerick doesn’t explicitly describe summing the bits above the line before dividing the result by seven
It works if you execute the limerick in order as written.
Applying mathematical rules to language is hardly appropriate, in written English, addition is often denoted by the word ‘and’
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The first two lines of the Limerick do generate the correct arithmetic ie 26. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Even the words “three times the sqrt of four” simply translate into “6”.
I don’t think the Limerick even depends on any “poetic licence” 
Right, just to be clear, I was just having a bit of fun with it. I’m not actually trying to criticise the writer of the limerick.
Let’s move on!
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There is though, one place where there is at least a technical a problem in the limerick, and that is the last line
“Is nine squared and not a bit more”
Technically speaking, that’s not actually true, what is true is:
“Is numerically equal to nine squared and not a bit more.”
or, less formally,
“Is equal to nine squared and not a bit more.”
So yes it does need some ‘poetic licence’
(Good thing it doesn’t need a driving licence in the UK as otherwise, because it doesn’t have a valid passport in its current name, it would have to wait at least 12 weeks for DVLA to even start to process it.)
Pedantry over!
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Here’s one I couldn’t finish last night. Assistance please for two more lines!
“Who the pfepfepfe,” said Boris, “is Sue Gray?”
I had only one Chardonnay!
“Twas a work do,” he spluttered
somethingorother muttered
somethingorother ay
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This to the press he muttered
And to the house he stated ay!
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Being British is about driving a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer,then on the way home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab,to sit on a Swedish sofa and watch USA shows on a Japanese TV.And most of all being suspicious of anything Foreign. Oh and only in Britain can you get a pizza to your home faster than a ambulance. Only in Britain do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counter. Supermarkets make sick people walk to the back of the shop for prescriptions whilst healthy people get their fags at the front. We might be British but dam we’re funny.
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