An algebra riddle has been printed on many images:
Q: Why didn’t the Romans find algebra very difficult?
A: Because X was always 10.
“The Romans didn’t find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10” was posted on the newsgroup alt.society.zeitgeist on June 20, 2000.
Google Groups: alt.society.zeitgeist
Math gets complicated
Twodobes
6/20/00
The Romans didn’t find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10.
Google Groups: alt.support.single-parents
Reese still can’t admit his mistakes…
The Stare
2/28/01
(...)
The Romans didn’t find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10.
Google Groups: alt.humor.puns
Puns of the Weak 03-01-04
Stan Kegel
3/1/04
(...)
The Romans didn’t find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10.
(Aaron Dragushan)
Twitter
Invest Entrepreneur
@investrepreneur
The Romans didn’t find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10.
12:50 AM - 5 Mar 2009
Twitter
Michael Klobe
@klobetime
Algebra was easy for the Romans because “X” was always 10.
3:06 PM - 11 Mar 2009
Google Books
Change and Invariance:
A Textbook on Algebraic Insight into Numbers and Shapes
By Ilya Sinitsky
Boston, MA: Sense Publishers
2016
Pg. 226:
A joke: The Romans didn’t find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10.
Reddit—Jokes
Why didn’t the Romans find algebra very challenging?
submitted May 17, 2016 by Dodgerballs
Because X was always 10
Reddit—Jokes
Why didn’t the Romans find algebra very difficult?
submitted April 10, 2018 by Mikluvinb
Because X was always 10
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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