'Tis Pythagoras' Theorem

Back to Contents

This may be sung to the melody of "The Last Rose of Summer".

'Tis Pythagoras' theorem tells the metric of our space,

gives the measurement of distance through the figure that we trace.

    Add up the squares of the sides

        on the right angle to deduce

    the square of the length of

        the triangle's hypotenuse.

Now Professor Albert Einstein says Pythagoras just won't do,

for the space that we live in has been twisted out of true

    by the mass of our home planet

        in action most sublime,

    of shrinking measured distance

        and accelerating time.

So mass acts on spacetime, makes it warp and makes it curve

and the warping of spacetime makes the bodies fall and swerve.

    Of Pythagoras' triangles

        Doctor Einstein did fully prove

    that to conform to our spacetime

        they must bend and they must move.

The equations of Einstein have a sad consequence,

a fate that our descendants will confront eons hence.

    On expansion of the cosmos

        the galaxies will have flown

    leaving Earth and its environs

        cold, dark, and alone.

efhghgef

Back to Contents