When I was very young, one of my teachers gave me the tongue-in-cheek article “The Complexity of Songs,” by legendary computer scientist Donald Knuth, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. I was recently reminded of this article when preparing some recent lecture notes, and I’m happy to share this article here.
The Complexity of Songs, by Donald Knuth
Posted in Humor, Popular Culture
Posted by John Quintanilla on November 30, 2015
https://meangreenmath.com/2015/11/30/the-complexity-of-songs-by-donald-knuth/
Previous Post
Math is Illegal in Kentucky
Math is Illegal in Kentucky
Leave a comment
1 Comment
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
-
Top Posts & Pages
- Engaging students: Finding the domain and range of a function
- Square roots and logarithms without a calculator (Part 3)
- Importance of the base case in a proof by induction
- Exponential growth and decay (Part 2): Paying off credit-card debt
- Engaging students: Absolute value
- Engaging students: Synthetic Division
- Engaging students: Proving that two triangles are congruent using SAS
- What's bigger: 1/3 pound burgers or 1/4 pound burgers?
- Engaging students: Using a truth table
- Engaging students: Solving linear systems of equations by either substitution or graphing
Archives
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
Categories
- Algebra I (199)
- Algebra II (294)
- Bases (44)
- Calculus (234)
- Chemistry (10)
- Computer science (10)
- Discrete mathematics (257)
- Elementary (152)
- Engagement (772)
- Geometry (239)
- Guest presenter (458)
- History (54)
- Humor (267)
- Linear Algebra (12)
- News Clips (130)
- Physics (40)
- Popular Culture (256)
- Pre-Algebra (170)
- Precalculus (511)
- Preparing for college (12)
- Probability (87)
- Statistics (86)
- Tales from the Classroom (222)
- Technology (80)
- Theorems (164)
- Uncategorized (63)
Tags
angle arccosine arcsine arctangent area circle combinatorics Common Core completing the square complex numbers compound interest conceptual barrier confidence interval convex polygons cosine decimal De Moivre's Theorem derivative differential equation distributive law divisibility division algorithm e exponent exponential factoring fraction function geometric series graph high-stakes testing hypothesis test index to a series of posts induction integral intercepts inverse function limit logarithm logic MAA magic trick matrices multiplication parabola parallel Pascal's triangle perpendicular pi polar coordinates polynomial primes PRIMUS proof Pythagorean theorem Pythagorean trig identities quadratic formula residue sequence series sine slope sphere sports square root system of equations tangent Taylor series textbook problems triangle trigonometry unsolved problems vector volume xkcdMeta
howardat58
/ November 30, 2015And they think that math people don’t have a sense of humour !