Thursday, September 6, 2012

Dave Computes Complex Roots, Poetically


There is a nerdy poem about the square root of three that Kal Penn recites in the movie Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.  Here is the parody I wrote when I was teaching complex roots in my precalculus course last year.

The Cube Root Of Three

I take the cake, you must agree,
for I'm a cube root of a three!
There must be three of me to make
a product you cannot mistake.
You think I'm one point four four two?
Well I've got something more for you!
Take half of that and multiply
by minus one plus root three i.
Did I say i? I can't be real.
You can't imagine how I feel.
You cannot see how it can be
That three of me can make a three?
Just FOIL me with me and then
that conjugates with me again.
Do you feel foolish next to me?
Confused by my complexity?
My formula you can derive
in Precalc section six point five.

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