I heard this quote...

[DragonCommander]

I heard this quote at school today, and can't remember for the life of me where it came from.

"Taking three as the subject to reason about,
A convenient number to state;
We add seven and ten and then multiply out
by one thousand diminished by 8;
Upon doing this we see that *I didn't catch this bit*
by nine hundred and ninety and two;
then subtract seventeen and the answer must be
exactly and perfectly true!"

[Saffith]

The part you missed was probably "dividing," or something to that effect.

Start with three, add seven, add ten. Multiply by 992 (That is, 1000-8). Divide by 992, then subtract 17.

(3+7+10)*992/992-17=3

It's a cute little rhyme, but all you're really doing is adding, multiplying, then undoing each.


Oh, but where it came from? I searched for "one thousand diminished by eight" on Google, according to which it seems to have come from "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll. And this, apparently, is the original version:

"Taking Three as the subject to reason about--
A convenient number to state--
We add Seven, and Ten, and then multiply out
By One Thousand diminished by Eight.

"The result we proceed to divide, as you see,
By Nine Hundred and Ninety Two:
Then subtract Seventeen, and the answer must be
Exactly and perfectly true. "

[Paradox]

funny rhyme. but it is dumb math.