Solution: Mathematics Meta
Answer: RAM ALPHA WOLF

Written by Jonah Ostroff

In the math department, every course is associated with a course number, some of which are rather unusual. The answers and course numbers are:

Course #Answer
7SAD FACE
15SESAME CHICKEN
122MADAME BLANCHE
200MASS CLAIM
39.1666...ADA KING
0.9DEAD LABEL
-34012208SEA LANE

Each answer consists of two words. The first word only uses letters from {E, M, D, A, S}, which are the five letters from PEMDAS that correspond to binary operations. The second word only uses letters from {A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N}, and is one letter longer than the first. Therefore, we can interleave the two words to make an expression with n variables and n-1 operations. For example, SAD FACE can be read as F-A+C/E, and SESAME CHICKEN can be read as C-H^I-C+K*E^N.

We can then set each of these expressions equal to the associated course number to get a system of equations:

F-A+C/E = 7
C-H^I-C+K*E^N = 15
B*L+A/N+C*H^E = 122
C*L+A-I-M = 200
K+I/N+G = 39.1666...
L/A^B+E/L = 0.9
L-A^N+E = -34012208

This is a system with seven equations and twelve variables, so there must be an additional constraint. With the additional assumption that each variable is between 1 and 26, there’s a unique solution:

VariableValueLetter
A18R
B1A
C13M
DN/A
E1A
F12L
G16P
H8H
I1A
JN/A
K23W
L15O
M12L
N6F

Reading down, the answer is RAM ALPHA WOLF.

Author’s Notes

This meta was inspired by those viral “6 รท 2(1+2)” memes. The original idea was to just have answers using only letters from PEMDAS (with no repeats), giving a new order of operations, and applying them to expressions in the meta shell. There aren’t a lot of words like that, however, so eventually I landed on the two-word concept.

The blanks at D and J were added to allow for slightly better letters, but I was sad to lose the answer DAD JOKE. I had also hoped to include a few answers with pairs of Ps, like PAMPAS GRASS, but unfortunately none of them fit in the alphabetical range for the answer.