So like one, two, red, blue, I’ll call this one “fish”!
September 13, 2011 3:46 AM   Subscribe

 
This calls for a little of Dylan's Dr. Seuss!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:10 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


This one's my personal favorite, though.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:12 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


I bet her professor was pretty damned delighted by that.

Next: Cardano's formula in the style of Ogden Nash, please.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:54 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


What font is that? Its difficult for me to parse, but then, I'm not a web designer.
posted by infini at 6:03 AM on September 13, 2011


To the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel"

x is equal to opposite b
plus or minus the sqaaaare root
of b squared minus fo-our ac
allll over twooo a


Good luck forgetting that.
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 6:17 AM on September 13, 2011 [5 favorites]


Reminds me of a proof of the irrationality of sqrt(2) I read in "A Tour of the Calculus" - its less than 2 pages on Google Books here and totally worth a read.
posted by ish__ at 6:42 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


If it's to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel there's a high chance I'll inadvertently give two roots as the area of a trapezium, or calculate the zeroes of a quadratic as half the sum of the parallel sides.
posted by edd at 6:42 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


This is the antidote to if the IRS had discovered the quadratic formula.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:18 AM on September 13, 2011 [3 favorites]


I demand the infinitude of primes expressed as a limerick!
posted by Wolfdog at 8:19 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


List every prime number you see,
Multiply them and add one (it's key,)
To halt the detractors,
Find this number's prime factors,
We've made a new prime! Q.E.D.
posted by Wulfhere at 9:38 AM on September 13, 2011 [4 favorites]


If of primes there's a short finite list,
There is one you have def'nitely missed:
Multiply every one,
To the product add one--
Its prime factors can't be in the list!
posted by leahwrenn at 9:40 AM on September 13, 2011 [5 favorites]


My teacher taught us to the tune of frere jacques:

negative b, negative b
plus or minus square root, plus or minus square root
b squared minus four ac, b squared minus four ac
over two a, over two a

This saved my life incidentally. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but it saved my summer. I went (willingly and happily) to nerd summer camp as a kid, but my first year, my mom secretly signed me up for the math course because she was worried about how I'd done the previous year. I think I'd gotten Bs on a test or two, and that was clearly cause for alarm. However, since she knows nothing about math, she signed me up for the same dang class I'd already taken.

The prospect of spending 3 weeks not just on math, but on math I'd already covered, was terrifying to me. But the summer camp teacher was adamant. "You should stay because this pre-algebra class is really advanced," he said. "I bet you didn't get to the quadratic equation." And I looked him square in the eyes and said, "Of course we did: it's negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four a c over two a." And I swear there was an audible gasp from the rest of the class. It is probably the only time in my life anyone has been in awe of my mathematical prowess.

And so I got to spend 3 weeks writing and reading authors like Nabokov and Raymond Carver instead. What they didn't know was that, while my school year teacher had taught us the equation, she'd barely touched on how to use it. And though I eventually did make much use of it, I'm a bit chagrined to say that everything from Algebra II through AB calc was pretty much lost by the time I got to the second semester of my Freshman year of college.

But hey, it's 15+ years later and I can still recite the quadratic equation.
posted by lesli212 at 9:43 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


I demand a harem of amorous werewolves!
posted by Wolfdog at 9:44 AM on September 13, 2011


This demand has been left as an exercise for the reader...
posted by Wulfhere at 10:13 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


If the list of primes is finite,
multiply all of them in sight.
Now add one to that,
what are its factors? drat!
That's a contradiction, right?
posted by King Bee at 11:56 AM on September 13, 2011


What font is that? Its difficult for me to parse, but then, I'm not a web designer.

Looks to be Gloria Hallelujah.
posted by tempestuoso at 12:46 PM on September 13, 2011


Well named, is it the new comic sans?
posted by infini at 1:25 PM on September 13, 2011


It was worth a try, what the hell.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:08 PM on September 13, 2011


Yeah, but where do you plug in the numbers?
posted by storybored at 8:52 PM on September 13, 2011


I still remember the quadratic equation by singing it...I don't think that's ever leaving my brain.
posted by estherhaza at 6:55 AM on September 14, 2011


Yeah, but was this published in a peer reviewed journal?
posted by BurnChao at 8:26 AM on September 14, 2011


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