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Playful Math Smelled as Sweet as Pie

By Pup Horst

Playful math

Smelled

As sweet as pie

Happy Pi Day, everyone!  As mentioned in our call for submissions, Math Values is celebrating this year with Pi-ku poems written by the community.  Thank you everyone who sent us your poems!

A Pi-ku is a short form poem based on the traditional Haiku; it consists of three lines, the first line with three syllables, the second with one syllable, and the last with four.  As in, 3.14, a common if rather imprecise approximation for π.

We’ve selected close to one hundred of our favorite Pi-kus we received this past month.  I’ve organized them into several genres—I’ll give a bit of commentary for each new genre, but for the most part I’ll let the poems speak for themselves.

Finally, please note that some of these do not perfectly conform to the Pi-ku form, but in the interest of having as full a community-wide celebration as possible, we decided to accept a wide range of submissions.  Similarly, all punctuation and capitalization are left as the poets originally had them.


He assessed

Pi:

Archimedes


Our first genre of Pi-ku:  Those directly about the number itself!  This was the second-most common genre we received, though it might not look like it.  This is because we receive several identical copies of this next poem—perhaps the very kernel of the Pi-ku form.

Three point one

Four

One five nine two

Several other entries in this genre focus on the decimal expansion of π, whereas others contemplate other properties of the number.

Pi is why

Our

World is perfect

Pi and I

Are

Infinity

Why is pi

So

Insanely long?

Digits grow

Fast

Never repeating!

Pi is wild,

Plus,

Never stops, bro

Pi goes on

Long

Never repeating

The number

Pi:

Irrational

Rational?

No.

Irrational!

Me plus pi

Equals

A circle’s kiss!

Pi times d

Is

Circumference

Newton did

Pi

Approximate.

Estimate

With

Buffon’s needle

Three one four

One

Five nine two six

Pi is this

in hex:

three point two four.

Best Kind Of

Pie:

Three-point-one-four

Pie is cool.

Pi?

Even better.

Number pi

You

Are delicious


for MAA I

try . . .

π poetry


Our next genre consists of those Pi-kus about the very concept of Pi-ku.  How meta!

You are free

To

write a pi-ku

Three Point One

Four

Pi-Ku Poem

three-one-four

not

five-seven-five

Haiku about pi

With only eight syllables

Not really haiku

Pi-kus are hard.

But,

Pie goes harder.

π-topped pie . . .

spurs

Pi-ku anew

smörgåsbord—

MAA’s

Pi-ku galore


What is math?

Fun!

So study it.


We return to a mathematical genre of Pi-ku—­­this time not about the number π itself, but about other mathematical topics or math itself.  These next two used extended forms, one is two Pi-kus glued together, and the other is a Pi-ku extended to six lines.

Limit of

One

Minus sine squared.

Riemann’s guess

Z

Eta of s.

Euclid said:

Primes

Go ever on

Like

An infinite chain

From here to the heavens, skipping rocks.

The remainder of the Pi-kus in this genre use a more standard form.

I like Math.

No,

I ADORE Math!

Ah-ha! I

solved

A math puzzle.

Not enough

scratch

paper on Earth.

Happiness

Is

Solving problems

Mathematics

Is

silly puzzles

Math reveals

Truth

About the world

Always show

more

supporting work.

My brain is

A

Calculator

Pulling up

To

The math function.

With fluxions

Did

Newton figure.

Epsilon,

A

Tiny number.

Limits grow

Close,

never reaching past

Lims approach

Zero

But never quite reach

Approach close

But

Never reach.

Infinite

sums

are very fun.

Spiraling

to

infinity.

Numbers dance

Through

Infinite paths

three, two, then

one

numbers are fun

Numbers dance

In

Circles forever!

A circle

Looks

Both straight and round

Cardioids

are

my love and joy.

Triangles

are

very pointy

Proofs and tricks

Are

everywhere.

Math is fun

Oh

Proofs amaze me!

Discrete Math

With

Proofs and Logic

In discrete,

We

Learn some cool stuff.

This is math.

So,

why no numbers?

Negation,

Proof,

Contradiction!

Always true

Means

Tautology

Logical,

Not?

Give it some thought.

Solve for x

Now

Think logically

Everyone

should

learn math in school

Six is scared

Why?

Seven ate nine.


I had this math dream.

A haiku that serves as a

Pi mnemonic verse.


Our next genre was a rare one but a delightful reinterpretation of the Pi-ku idea:  Encode the decimal expansion of π in a poem.  Our next one is a modified Haiku where the number of letters in each word is a digit of π:

How I mend a crack:

Beautiful pi loving those

Who spout nonsense.

The other such submission we received used the first letter of each word in a Haiku to encode the digits of π.  The encoding scheme was

1. One

2. tWo

3. tHree

4. fouR

5. Five

6. siX

7. Seven

8. Eight

9. Nine

and the poem itself is

Hell, or ring of fire

No waxing fears hold faith's end

Next Spring new hope waits


Eating is

my

favorite thing


My favorite Pi-kus:  Food-focused!  Most of these reference the number itself and the resulting pun, but a few involve unrelated foodstuffs.

The Pi Day

is

for pi and pie.

print a π—

on

pie with patience

filled with pies . . .

Year

of the Wood Snake

Pi Day pie—

pair

strawberry pear

Vanilla

for

Pi a la mode

Pi is not

Just

A tasty dish

cutie pie . . .

try

pecan Pi pies

I love pi.

Lots.

Do you love pie?

I love pie

It’s

Made of numbers

I love pi

No,

Not the number

Pi Day prompt

whets

my appetite

This year, not

Pie—

Hamantaschen

Sweet Apples

Spice

Baked Perfection

Donuts are tasty,

Go to take a bite nom-nom.

Huh? It was a mug.

Matcha is

the

best drink to date

Warm Coffee

Sip

I feel happy

Some food for

Thought:

Turmeric Root

Pie tastes good

Dang

Extra belt notch


Spirals twist

In

Never-ending waves


Everything else:  The miscellaneous genre of Pi-kus!  Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of these involve the struggles of a math student.

Out of Bed?

No.

Ten more Minutes.

Why must I

Do

All my homework?

The classroom,

liv

-ing, speaks to me.

Don't forget

to

include the sea.

My dog, Finn

Is

Scared of bubbles

Sudoku

Is

not from Japan

Tax forms filed

Due

Digits endure

Stack is full

RAM,

it crashes again.

On the way

To

The top I go!


Thank you again everyone who sent us poetry! If you weren’t able to this year, you have plenty of time to work on your poems for next year!

We have one final poem for you—this one is a small math puzzle for you to work out. Happy Pi Day!

If A equals 1,

B, 2, …, and Z, 26,

show PI is square.


Pup Horst is currently faculty at Case Western Reserve University and the deputy editor of MAA Math Values.  While xyr work was originally in lower-dimensional higher category theory, these days xe focuses primarily on pedagogy and teaching.  In addition to finding xem dancing xyr way through math classes, you can find xem working with xyr cohort of Posse scholars, a group of diverse, leadership students on campus xe mentors as part of xyr role as Posse Faculty Mentor.