Math meets Dr Seuss

Blogger Sue VanHattum (MathMamaWrites) sent me a link to a posting on another blog, kGuac, on which she found a Dr Seussical expression of the quadratic formula -- written by blogger Katie Benedetto for extra credit in her college abstract algebra class.  Here are several stanzas of Katie's poem:  

  The Quadratic Equation     by Katie Benedetto

  Every Why down in Whyville knows Whyville’s the best
  For the town has a secret not shared with the rest
  It’s a glorious place, it’s the best one around
  For here, all the answers to questions are found

  No question exists that will stump Zimmie-Fizz
  The great Why-Queen who knows every answer there is
  So I’ll tell you one tale of an answer she gave
  Which, for Why-mathematicians, caused time to be saved:

  A Why-lad brought forth an equation to try,
  She saw it and said, with the blink of an eye,
  “Never fear, young Why-lad, why I’ll show you a trick!
  I can solve this quadratic equation real quick!”

  Each value there was, well she renamed each one
  Claiming that nice names would make this more fun.
  “Variables, well, they’re whatever we wish
  So like one, two, red, blue, I’ll call this one “fish”!

      . . .

For the other stanzas -- and the poem's backstory -- go to kGuac.
Go here to  access IRS form QF (which would be ours to follow if the IRS had discovered the quadratic formula) by Daniel J. Velleman.  

Here, in closing, from Oh, the Thinks You Can Think,

 is a rhyming math question from Dr. Seuss.