# 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. 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
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
Jul 27, 2014 at 1:20
• @oliveeuler You should post your comment as an answer. Thanks for the link! Jul 27, 2014 at 1:21
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
Nov 24, 2018 at 18:14
• math.stackexchange.com/questions/1692395/mathematical-limerick
– user584285
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
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
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. 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. 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.) 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". Jul 27, 2014 at 15:28