My Favourite Song
From the great Stan Kelly-Bootle:
CHORUS Lemma three, very pretty,
and the converse pretty too;
But only God and Fermat
know which of them is true.
VERSE 1 When I studied number theory,
I was happy in me prime,
And all them wild conjectures,
I knocked them two at a time, but...
CHORUS
VERSE 2 Last week, at supervision,
Ken Ribet said to me:
"Did you discover
the deliberate mistake in lemma numberthree?"
CHORUS
VERSE 3 Lemma three it has puzzled
mathematicians by the score,
But Max Newman has engulfed it,
and it won't be seen no more.
CHORUS
VERSE 4 Well, the axiom of choice,
it is very clear to me:
If you wanna choose a lemma, boys,
then don't choose lemma three, for...
CHORUS
VERSE 5 And it's black and white together,
we shall not be moved,
But the four-color theorem,
it hasn't yet been proved
CHORUS Lemma three, very pretty,
and the converse pretty too;
But only God and Andrew
know which of them is true.
(Yes, both myself and the author know the four-colour theorem HAS been proved.)
CHORUS Lemma three, very pretty,
and the converse pretty too;
But only God and Fermat
know which of them is true.
VERSE 1 When I studied number theory,
I was happy in me prime,
And all them wild conjectures,
I knocked them two at a time, but...
CHORUS
VERSE 2 Last week, at supervision,
Ken Ribet said to me:
"Did you discover
the deliberate mistake in lemma numberthree?"
CHORUS
VERSE 3 Lemma three it has puzzled
mathematicians by the score,
But Max Newman has engulfed it,
and it won't be seen no more.
CHORUS
VERSE 4 Well, the axiom of choice,
it is very clear to me:
If you wanna choose a lemma, boys,
then don't choose lemma three, for...
CHORUS
VERSE 5 And it's black and white together,
we shall not be moved,
But the four-color theorem,
it hasn't yet been proved
CHORUS Lemma three, very pretty,
and the converse pretty too;
But only God and Andrew
know which of them is true.
(Yes, both myself and the author know the four-colour theorem HAS been proved.)
Gene,
ReplyDeleteAre you and Wabulon the same person?
Gene, that is lovely.
ReplyDeleteBob, no we aren't, or else we have a major problem with narcissism.