# Is there any similar math limerick?

I found this one

$$\frac{(12+144+20)+\left(3 \cdot \sqrt{4}\right)}{7}+(5 \cdot 11)=9^2+0.$$

Which is :

A dozen, a gross, and a score

Plus three times the square root of four

Divided by seven

Plus five times eleven

Is nine squared and not a bit more.


I think this is very entertaining, thus I wonder if there is any similar limerick/math poem.

• That's probably not even right. Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 1:10
• There once was a number named e. Who took way too much LSD. She thought she was great. But that fact we debate. We know she wasn't greater than 3. trottermath.net/humor/limricks.html
– Jam
Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 1:12
• That site also has a good one with an integral that you may like though it's extremely irksome that they've misspelled limericks in the url.
– Jam
Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 1:20
• @oliveeuler You should post your comment as an answer. Thanks for the link! Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 1:21
Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 4:26

$$\int_1^{\sqrt[3]{3}} t^2\mathrm{d}t\cdot\cos\left(\frac{3\pi}{9}\right)=\ln(\sqrt[3]{e})$$ $$\text{Integral t squared dt,}$$ $$\text{from 1 to the cube root of 3,}$$ $$\text{times the cosine,}$$ $$\text{of three pi over 9,}$$ $$\text{equals log of the cube root of e.}$$

You can find some more here: http://www.trottermath.net/humor/limricks.html

– user584285
Commented Nov 24, 2018 at 18:14
• math.stackexchange.com/questions/1692395/mathematical-limerick
– user584285
Commented Nov 24, 2018 at 18:15
• Well I copied it 4 years ago so I'm not surprised. Look it up on archive.org.
– Jam
Commented Nov 24, 2018 at 18:45

Assuming that Schnaderhuepfel are the (south?) German equivalent of limericks, I offer the following, which I heard from my father (but the misspellings are my own):

Mir fehlt nur ein Hilfssatz,

Dann bin ich ein Gauss.

Doch den Hilfssatz, den Hilfssatz,

Den krieg ich nicht raus.

• 'I lack only a helpful set, I am a Gaussian, But the alternative set - the auxiliary set, I war not out.' - the limits of machine translation!
– user117644
Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 5:15
• A non-machine translation (not entirely literal and not rhyming): I need only a lemma; then I'm a Gauss. But that lemma, that lemma; I just can't prove it. Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 5:20
• @mistermarko "Kriegen" can mean to get or to obtain. So the last line literally says "I don't get it [the lemma] out." Also, I've never heard of "hilfssatz" (small h) meaning "helpful set"; in fact, since "set" is a noun, any German word meaning "helpful set" should be capitalized. Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 5:33
• Is kriegen a colloquial term (Umgangssprache), or is it "Hochdeutsch". (I am not sure whether Hochdeutsch is a correct term, but I guess it is understandable what I mean.) Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 7:06
• By the way, "Satz" is used in mathematical German to mean "theorem", so "Hilfssatz" is literally "helping theorem" or, in better English, "auxiliary theorem", i.e., "lemma". Commented Jul 27, 2014 at 15:28
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