Problem of the Week
for the week of December 19, 2005

Holiday Algebra

Many Christmas songs have lyrics in which a word or phrase is repeated. Several repetitive lyrics have been extracted from a number of holiday favorites.   Each algebraic expression below represents a song, where each word is represented by its first letter and exponents show the number of repetitions.   If two or more words are repeated as a group, they appear in parentheses.   For example, (JB)2 is short for "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells."

Can you identify all the songs below?
  1. (JB)3R
  2. P(RP3)3
  3. FL8
  4. (SIHP)2
  5. N4
  6. (WWYAMC)3
  7. (OCT)2
  8. OTO(CAJ)2OTOCAJ
  9. (GIED)2
  10. (OCLUAH)2
  11. (H3WWG)2
  12. (LIS)3
  13. (FN)3
  14. (SB)2
  15. (HCSC)2
  16. (RTSJ)2 R2TSJ
  17. (OC)3E

  Extra Credit: A61


Send your solution by Friday 4:00 PM to:
David Pleacher

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