clubok%husc4@harvard.harvard.edu (Kenneth Clubok) (11/09/89)
This is a history of math compiled by me and some friends:
.v
First, there were the whole numbers
Because people thought in terms of watermelons.
And they justified this: one cannot have negative watermelons,
nor even their square roots.
And this was good.
Then, Man invented the knife,
And so came the rational watermelons.
As Man learned to divide his fruits
in manifold and wonderful ways,
He still could not make pie from any
combination of rational watermelons.
And this, too, was good.
Then Man invented genetic engineering.
And, Lo! Behold the irrational watermelon,
For it did have square roots.
And it was better than ever.
At last, the mad farmer Cauchy,
In his five volume work, "The Soul of my Watermelon,"
Concluded that the i is the mirror of the watermelon.
And so he wandered happily forevermore
Through his imaginary plane.
And the Riemann Sphere was complete.
And it was.
--
Edited by Brad Templeton. MAIL, yes MAIL your jokes to funny@looking.ON.CA
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