Theater of the Absurd

A month ago, when I searched the web for “News American Election 2008”, I got this as one of the search results: Oh, the Drama! McCain in the Theater of the Absurd. The last four words caught my attention.

The New Lexicon Webster’s Dictionary defines theater of the absurd as “dramatic presentations that depict the absurdity of the human condition in an incomprehensible universe by abandoning realistic form and utilizing fantastic or other eccentric means”.

Jerome P. Crabb profoundly explained it and cited Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot as the most famous and most controversial absurdist play.

The play was made into a film, a portion of which can be viewed in Youtube.

The Pi Song

Double E's(www.amIright.com) parody of Don McLean's American Pie.

A long, long time ago
I can still remember
When the Bible told that pi was three
There was no value at that time
Like 3.14159
And 3 worked as pi's value for a while
But Archimedes, he did shiver.
And with each new value he'd deliver
Much better precision
Than anyone before him
He did not know what pi would be,
But his value was better than 3
So, he was smarter, can't you see
The day our lives were pied
So

My, my that's one large piece of pi
Not just 3.1415926535...
897932385 (actually 46, but it rounds)
Singing that we'll never learn all of pi
That we'll never learn all of pi

In the year 150 AD
There came this guy named Ptolemy
Who learned pi as 3.1416
And then the year 1430 came
al-Kashi had 14 digits to his name
But so many more were still to come.
Well, then in 1593
Romanus brought the total to 15
And just three years from then
Van Cuelen added digits: 10 + 10
At the end of the seventeenth century
Sharp added 36 more digits to be
But they all still need to see
The day our lives were pied
I started singing

My, my that's one large piece of pi
Not just 3.1415926535...
897932385
Singing that we'll never learn all of pi
That we'll never learn all of pi

And for six years pi hadn't grown
It was just sitting, like a stone
That's not the way it'd always be
When Machin came in 1706
This dormancy he sought out to fix
When he came with 100 numbers
Oh and the first one to make a mistake
Was de Lagny in 17-1-8
He had one hundred twelve
But 15 he had to shelve
To end this century with a roar
In 17 and 94
Von Vega added 24
Before our lives were pied
We were singing

My, my that's one large piece of pi
Not just 3.1415926535...
897932385
Singing that we'll never learn all of pi
That we'll never learn all of pi

Rutherford came in 1824,
He came up with much more than before
But he messed the last 56
He tried again in '53
And had right digits, 440
And they all were correct on this attempt
Now the next hundred years showed little work
When Shanks had just a tiny quirk
He had to the 700th place
But he miscalculated one case
So has last 200 were all wrong
And a positive gain took way too long
We're halfway through this really long song
The day we all were pied
We started singing

My, my that's one large piece of pi
Not just 3.1415926535...
897932385
Singing that we'll never learn all of pi
That we'll never learn all of pi

In 1946 Ferguson came and
Was the last man to calculate by hand
And computers entered in to play
Well, these computers, they worked quick
With Ferguson being to first to stick
Numbers in, and learn more of pi.
Well, that day he learned 710
Six months later he tried again
He got eight hundred eight
Cause people just can't wait
And in September 1999
The most digits that I could find
Were discovered by artificial mind
The day we all were pied
It was singing

My, my that's one large piece of pi
Not just 3.1415926535...
897932385
Singing that we'll never learn all of pi
That we'll never learn all of pi

The digits they discovered then,
They'll discover them and more again,
Were more than would fit in this song
Two hundred six billion and more
158 million and then four
Hundred thirty thousand digits, they do know
And in math class the students know
That pi will never end although
People keep on learning
Until the world stops turning
I hope you all enjoyed my song,
Though I admit it's way too long
If you know the words sing along
The day we are were pied.
And we were singing

My, my that's one large piece of pi
Not just 3.1415926535...
897932385
Singing that we'll never learn all of pi
That we'll never learn all of pi.

We were singing
My, my that's one large piece of pi
Not just 3.1415926535...
897932385
Singing that we'll never learn all of pi.