Pi Poem
Pi day Poem
From ancient Babylonia to modern day
Mathematicians have tried to find a way
To find the ratio of a circle’s circumference and diameter
But people were amateurs
Until Archimedes of Syracuse came along
And proved all the others wrong
But if you don’t like Greek
Then don’t freak
There’s always Zu Chongzhi (Zhee)
A mathematician meant to be
He made no fuss
As he used the abacus
And in the 18th century
There was another discovery
French named George Buffon
Yes, he’s already gone
But he calculate π
Based on probability (ti)
π is so cool
So, what can it do?
Coulomb’s law is from physics
Don’t know what rhymes to this lyric
But the formula goes like this:
Electric force = charge 1 times charge 2 over 4 π epsilon distance squared
What did it just declared?
The force when same charges repel and opposites attract
It’s not that abstract
Just think of how magnets would react
Next formula on the curriculum
Is the famous pendulum
Ever wondered what’s the period of this oscillation?
Don’t go into too much elation
But it’s 2 π square root of L over g
Where L is length (of the pendulum) while g is (acceleration of) gravity
Last but not least
Check out this beast
Stirling’s approximation of factorials
Let me give you a tutorial
n! is approximated by n over e to the n power times square root 2 π n
So I must repeat the importance of π again
Every day of the year
The one day to be feared – I mean cheered
Is March 14 – the day of π
As students give a sigh
When they memorize digits
And make their shirts legit
To get extra credit
The End