Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Written in 1951, this song about calculating the derivative of a function y(x) is one of several songs Lehrer has penned about mathematics, his area of expertise.
The song is written to the tune of There’ll Be Some Changes Made by W. Benton Overstreet.
Prof. Walter Smith of Haverford College expla...
[Introduction: Spoken]
To cover that great theory would be my fondest hope
Were it not that of this course it's far beyond the scope
This brings us to the question, though
Of how much math you ought to know:
Most of it is inconsequential
But the derivative is essential
But you oughtn't have trouble, ought you?
If you remember that song I taught you:
[Verse 1]
You take a function of x and call it y
Take any x naught that you care to try
You make a little change and call it Delta X
The corresponding change in y is what you find next
And then you take the quotient and now carefully
Send out x to zero and I think you'll see
That what the limit gives us if our limit checks
Is what we call dy dx
Its just dy dx.
The Derivative Song was written by Tom Lehrer.
Tom Lehrer released The Derivative Song on Mon Jan 01 1951.