General
Pi vs e
Pi goes on and on and on... And e is just as cursed. I wonder: Which is larger When their digits are reversed?
Limericks
This poem was written by Jon Saxton (an author of math textbooks).
((12 + 144 + 20 + (3 * 4½)) / 7) + (5 * 11) = 92 + 0
Or for those who have trouble with the poem:
A dozen, a gross, and a score, Plus three times the square root of four, Divided by seven, Plus five times eleven, Equals nine squared plus zero, no more.
Here's a limerick I picked up off the net a few years back - looks better on paper.
3_
\/3
/
| 2 3 X pi 3_
| z dz X cos(--------) = ln (\/e )
| 9
/
1
Which, of course, translates to:
Integral z-squared dz from 1 to the cube root of 3 times the cosine of three pi over 9 equals log of the cube root of e.
And it's correct, too.
A mathematician named Klein Thought the Mobius Band was divine. Said he, "If you glue The edges of two You get a weird bottle like mine."
A challenge for many long ages Had baffled the savants and sages. Yet at last came the light: Seems old Fermat was right-- To the margin add 200 pages.
-- Paul Chernoff
There Once Was a Breathy Baboon
by Sir Arthur Eddington
There once was a breathy baboon Who always breathed down a bassoon, For he said, "It appears That in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune."
From: blc@solomon.technet.sg (Brian Cohen)
A mathematician named Hall had a hexahedronical ball. The cube of its weight, times his pecker plus eight is his phone number. Give him a call!
A graduate student at Trinity Computed the square of infinity. But it gave him the fidgets To put down the digits, So he dropped math and took up divinity.
A burleycue dancer, a pip Named Virginia, could peel in a zip; But she read science fiction and died of constriction Attempting a Moebius strip.
- Cyril Kornbluth
A mathematician confided That a Moebius strip is one-sided. You'd get quite a laugh If you cut it in half, For it stays in one piece when divided.
We hesitantly announce a new research project: The AIRhead Science Limerick Compendium. The first entry is from reader Peter Olsen. Olsen used as it the entire answer to a final examination question: "Describe what you have learned in this course."
In Arctic and Tropical Climes, The Integers, addition, and times, Taken (mod p) will yield, A full finite field, As p ranges over the primes.
From: 'PIGDOG' Eric Struckhoff <ericcs@u.washington.edu>
If n in a Taylor series goes 2 to 11 by threes for x = 1 convergence is done 'twixt zero and two, I believe.
From: mcripps@computan.on.ca (Mervyn Cripps)
I used to think math was no fun, 'Cause I couldn't see how it was done. Now Euler's my hero, for I now see why 0 i^(pi) = e + 1
CHEERS
(phonetically...)
ee to the ex dee ex, ee to the why dee why, sine x, cosine x, natural log of y, derivative on the left derivative on the right integrate, integrate, fight! fight! fight!
E to the x dx dy radical transcendental pi secant cosine tangent sine 3.14159 2.71828 come on folks let's integrate!!
E to the i dx dy E to y dy cosine secant log of pi disintegrate em RPI !!!
square root, tangent hyperbolic sine, 3.14159 e to the x, dy, dx, sliderule, slipstick, TECH TECH TECH!
e to the u, du/dx e to the x dx cosine, secant, tangent, sine, 3.14159 integral, radical, u dv, slipstick, slide rule, MIT!
E to the X D-Y, D-X E to the X D-X. Cosine, Secant, Tangent, Sine 3.14159 E-I, Radical, Pi Fight'em, Fight'em, WPI!
Go Worcester Polytechnic Institute!