More than any of my math songs, this one has gone through (and been published in) many versions (thanks to helpful suggestions by folks like Art Benjamin—thanks, Art!) so this version may differ from the one in the journal you happen to be looking at. Here is the version I consider friendly to more audiences and it won an international songwriting contest sponsored by the National Museum of Mathematics in honor of “Pi Day of the Century”, 3/14/15:

“American Pi”

lyric © 1997- 2015 Lawrence Mark Lesser; all rights reserved

Prologue : A long, long time ago I can still remember

How that math sure used to make me smile.

And I knew if I had my chance, I would ace geometry class

And make my parents happy for a while.

But some math books made me shiver--

Dry procedures, all delivered:

Nothing past the rational, and nothing transcendental.

I can’t remember if I cried, reading 3.14159…

But something touched me deep inside

The day I learned of pi… so:



CHORUS : Find, find the value of pi, starts 3.14159...

A good ol' fraction you may hope to define,

But the decimal never dies, never repeats or dies….

In the Bible we do see the circle ratio appears as 3,

Or a little more....

That genius Archimedes found with polygons, an upper bound

Of 22/7 for sure!

The Chinese got it really keen: three-five-five over one thirteen!

More joined the action with continued fractions.

In the 1700s, my oh my, the English coined the symbol π,

Then Lambert proved that you and I can’t find rational pi.

He started singing..... (Repeat Chorus)

Late 1800s, Lindemann shared why a circle can’t be squared

But some folks tried anyway--

Like the Indiana doctor who said pi was 4 or 3.2

And thought his proof should be a law someday.

The Indiana congressmen

Read his paper there and then

A bill got through the House by a vote unanimous!

But in the end, the statesmen cried, “It’s not for us to decide!”

So the bill was left to die like the quest for rational pi.

Let’s try singing.... (Repeat Chorus)

And here is a longer version:

“American Pi”

lyric © 1997- 2015 Lawrence Mark Lesser; all rights reserved

May be sung to the tune of Don McLean’s “American Pie”

Prologue : A long, long time ago I can still remember

How that math sure used to make me smile.

And I knew if I had my chance, I would ace geometry class

And make my parents happy for a while.

But some math books made me shiver--

Dry procedures, all delivered:

Nothing past the rational, and nothing transcendental.

I can’t remember if I cried, reading 3.14159…

But something touched me deep inside

The day I learned of pi… so:



Find, find the value of pi, starts 3.14159…

Good ol’ boys gave it a try,

But the decimal never dies, the decimal never dies….

In the Bible we do see the circle ratio appears as three,

Or a little more....

That genius Archimedes found with polygons, an upper bound

Of 22/7 for sure!

The Chinese got it really keen: three-five-five over one thirteen!

More joined the action with continued fractions.

In the 1700s, my oh my, the English coined the symbol π,

Then Lambert proved that you and I can’t find rational pi.

He started singing.........

Find, find the value of pi

Twice 11 over 7 is a mighty fine try

A good ol’ fraction you might hope to supply,

But the decimal never dies, never repeats or dies…

Late 1800s, Lindemann shared why a circle can’t be squared

But some folks tried anyway--

Like the Indiana doctor who said pi was 4 or 3.2

And thought his proof should be a law someday.

The Indiana congressmen

Read his paper there and then

A bill got through the House by a vote unanimous!

But in the end, the statesmen cried, “It’s not for us to decide!”

So the bill was left to die like the quest for rational pi.

Let’s try singing......

Find, find the value of pi

Buffon’s needle popped the bubble of that ol’ doctor’s try

A good ol’ fraction could not be supplied

‘Cause the decimal never dies, never repeats or dies….

That doctor’s pi in the sky dreams may not look so extreme

‘Cause we long believed

Deductive systems could be complete and there was one true geometry.

Now when it comes to pi, we test the best machines to find

Many trillion places that so far lack pattern’s traces.

It’s great when we can truly see math as human history--

That adds curiosity...... easy as pi!

Let’s all try singing.....

Find, find the value of pi

3.141592653589…

A good ol’ fraction you might hope to define

But the decimal never dies, never repeats or dies…..

return to Larry's www.math.utep.edu/Faculty/lesser/Mathemusician.html page









