Easy As Pi
Words by Roger Clendening II © 2008
TTTO 307 Ale by Tom Smith

You start to study math, me lads, and constants will appear.
There's Euler-Masch'roni, Feigenbaum's, too; why, the list grows longer each year!
There's i and phi (fee) and rho and e and others coarse and fine,
But there's one that wins; it begins Three-Point-One-Four-One-Five-Nine.

	CHORUS:
	Three-Point-One-Four-TWO, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two,
	(We have to round, 'cause saying all those digits just won't do.)
	It is pi the whole damn world around, from Troy to Timbuktu,
	The finest constant that we've found is Three-Point-One-Four-Two, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two.

It began in India and Egypt, Greece and Babylon
When the wise men saw something 'bout circles each time one was drawn:
Circumf'rences? Diameters? Make 'em any size ya name,
But the ratio of C to D will always be the same.

	CHORUS:
	Three-Point-One-Four-TWO, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two,
	(We have to round, 'cause saying all those digits just won't do.)
	It is pi the whole damn world around, from Troy to Timbuktu,
	The finest constant that we've found is Three-Point-One-Four-Two, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two.

The ancients never were quite sure just how long pi should be.
Some got as far as the thousandth place, while some just stopped at "three"!
A Chinese sage found eight digits, outshining all his peers.
He did his bit, and that was it--for about nine-hundred years.

	CHORUS:
	Three-Point-One-Four-TWO, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two,
	(We have to round, 'cause saying all those digits just won't do.)
	It is pi the whole damn world around, from Troy to Timbuktu,
	The finest constant that we've found is Three-Point-One-Four-Two, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two.

It took something called calculus to make the numbers grow.
With skull sweat, you could make pi go as far as you can go.
An amateur in England reached 500 spots or more...
Then, computers came--and that guy's name got thrown right out the door!

	CHORUS:
	Three-Point-One-Four-TWO, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two,
	(We have to round, 'cause saying all those digits just won't do.)
	It is pi the whole damn world around, from Troy to Timbuktu,
	The finest constant that we've found is Three-Point-One-Four-Two, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two.

(Slower.)
A piece of cake to find, me lads, it's almost a cliché:
One thousand billion places, and there's more and more each day.
It's nothing but a punchline now--nobody seems to care ...
(A tempo.)
And if you don't believe me--pi are round, cornbread are square!

	FINAL CHORUS:
	Three-Point-One-Four-TWO, me lads, Three-Point-One-Four-Two,
	(We have to round, 'cause saying all those digits just won't do.)
	It is pi the whole damn world around, from Troy to Timbuktu:
	Just measure a circle, stem to stern.
	Divide C by D, that's our concern.
	And, if you're careful, then you'll learn--
	It's Three-Point-One-Four-Two!



Tagged: pi, π, math