User:RHaworth/sb2

by Martin Huxley
First traces of Maths that we find, Old bones in a cave left behind,
 * With patterns of nicks,
 * Babylonian tricks,

And the fruitful Papyrus of Rhind.

We don't have a board game of Thera's' Chaturanga's from subsequent eras,
 * But a race game is known,
 * Bets and dice being thrown,

And its catchphrase, `Apekho s'ap'hieras!'. [I take you off the Sacred Way. Chaturanga gave rise to chess and cards. The Drowned City of Thera is one source of the Atlantis story.]

"The squares on the legs as a pair Add up to the underside square,"
 * But PYTHAGORAS' battle,
 * Root two is irrat'l,

No cattle were sacrificed there. (about 550BC)

"What ratio seen in the square Does the side to diagonal bear?
 * Can the numbers of GOD
 * Be both even and odd?"

Impetuous student, beware! (about 550BC)

PYTHAGORAS' numbers were wholes With losable, breathable souls,
 * And the student who knew
 * About square root of two

Was sent down, charged with kicking own goals. (about 550 BC)

The pentagon HIPPASOS saw Has a small one inside when you draw
 * The diagonal lines.
 * Repetition defines

The irrational nature of tau.

Doctor EUCLID the mathematician Was also a noted magician.
 * While hymning to Demeter
 * He proved several lemmata,

And almost invented division. (about 300BC)

So EUCLID's first proof was acquired By assumption of what was desired:
 * "Either a or else b
 * Is a product of p."

There's a modern text equally mired.

"Did they make something fake for a crown? It would take sort of `density' down&hellip;
 * I've found it! Heureka!"
 * He ran as a streaker

From his bath through the town with no gown. (ARCHIMEDES)

Was bubble bath known to the Greeks? ARCHIMEDES relaxes and seeks
 * An assay for the crown,
 * Blowing foam up and down&hellip;

He'd've not found the answer for weeks. (about 220BC)

"Consider the flocks of the sun&hellip;" Was how ARCHIMEDES begun.
 * For counting the fleeces,
 * Even ant'hyp'hairesis

Leaves plenty of work to be done. (about 220BC)

The ancient Sicilian Don, ARCHIMEDES, could be living on.
 * When his life should be spared,
 * He went: "Halve it if paired,

If unpaired, go to $$3n + 1$$". (212BC; the 'Syracuse Algorithm')

When forming an area mapping With tangents and segments and capping,
 * The historical Greeks
 * Were constrained in techniques:

They had to avoid overlapping. (thanks to ROGERS)

How the Emperors exercise might, What the West calls the move of a knight:
 * Tread the Paces of Yu
 * Around the Lo Shu

Magic square, South to North, left to right. (MING TANG 23)

LIU HUI, a name to recall, Got pi with an error that's small.
 * He was able to vary a
 * Treatment of area

So triangles fill almost all. (about 300; thanks to ROGERS)

DIOPHANTUS's book: if you buy it, Twelve chapters, then everything's quiet;
 * HYPATIA's edition
 * Cut short by sedition,

With the editor killed in a riot. (415)

The inscrutable Chinaman SSUN TSU Gave a rule for when someone presents two
 * Remainder conditions
 * With co-prime divisions.

You pronounce him however you wants to. (about 450; but see CHIN CHIU-SHAO)

When you look for a name for your thesis On how to take numbers to pieces,
 * There's more satisfaction
 * From "cut-taker fraction"

Than original "ant'hyp'hairesis". (BHATTACHARYA, EUDOXUS)

The story of solving the PELL: The Greeks had techniques, but they fell.
 * BHATTACHARYA was random,
 * Then BHASKARA tandem;

Till LAGRANGE, "if it works, all is well".

A merchant asleep in his tent At a halt on the road to Tashkent
 * Awoke from his slumbers
 * With negative numbers,

So, rather than coming, he went.

He set Algebra off on its way, But the name AL-GORITHMI today
 * Was taken in vain
 * As "Maths is a pain",

In Greek "ho arithmos alge&iuml;". (AL-KHOWRIZMI, about 825)

The son of BONACCIO knew What one pair of rabbits can do,
 * Their awful potential
 * To grow exponential,

First England, Australia too. (FIBONACCI 1202)

CHIN CHIU-SHAO fulfilled many goals, Wrote a Treatise on Maths in nine scrolls;
 * In his elegant library,
 * Furnished by bribery,

He took wine, women, pork casseroles. (1247)

Who first combined residue classes? In a country here nothing new passes,
 * CHIN gave Master SONG
 * His discovery (Strong

'Proximation), and called for the lasses. (1247)

A name, all the same, what is in? Consider what happened to CHIN.
 * Although he attained a
 * High rank, his remainder

'S `Chinese', with no credit to him. (1247)

Was Madhava first to define The series for cosine and sine?
 * Such command of technique!
 * In the land of the leek,

In his name, ev'ry week, let us dine! (at the Madhav; about 1400)

Has the magic departed from squares Since D&Uuml;RER depicted black cares?
 * No emperor paces,
 * No astrologer traces,

No lawgivers leap from their chairs. (1514; MINGTANG, KEPLER, FRANKLIN)