Computational Complexity and other fun stuff in math and computer science from Lance Fortnow and Bill Gasarch
Monday, June 02, 2008
I will derive!
BILL: Lance, I have to do a post on the Math Novelty Song I will derive and need you to tell me how to embed a You-Tube Video into a post.
LANCE: I'll gladly tell you (HE DOES) but why do you have to post about it? I've seen it. Its awful!
BILL: Well, clearly I like these sort of things more than you. I've already gotten several emails about the song and if I don't post on it I'll get more.
LANCE: Well, what do you think of it?
BILL: The Lyrics are good but repetitive. I can't tell if the dancing is so bad that its good or just plain bad. Had this come out 30 years ago I would have liked it more, but there is so much better math novelty out there now then there was then, as you can see from this post, this post, and this post and (added in response to comment) this. But our readers can decide for themselves:
Very funny Bill. It made my day, but I have to agree with you about the repetitiveness.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I stumbled on your blog a couple of weeks ago. It's been a while. Hope things are well with you.
At least repetition is a proven effective way to drill a concept into the student's head. Now they know (at least in the long term for their learning benefit) that it is better to derive than to memorize.
ReplyDeleteI notice that none of the pages link to http://valis.cs.uiuc.edu/~sariel/misc/funny/#longest-path
ReplyDeleteThis is seriously funny, and much more CS-theory related.
I have to agree with Lance. This is below the bar.
ReplyDeletethis is the best. i love the dancing and the video editing is nice. the lyrics are not repetitive... it just has a chorus.
ReplyDelete