Cohen Rhymes Her Way Through Math
Marion Cohen, Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, and a long-time poet and writer, published a page of “math-teaching limericks” on the inside front cover of the February issue of Math Horizons.
Three cheers for the Old Babylon-ies.
We love those illustrious cronies.
Instead of our decimals
they used sexigesimals
to count up their sticks and stonies.
“I write limericks for every course that I teach, elementary to advanced,” Cohen says. “I pass the set of them out to the students, sometimes referring to them in my lectures, sometimes simply letting the students enjoy them.” Her limerick total over the years is more than 700.
A lad thought he’d service society
by studying math and psychiatry.
But his plans went a-ragin’
with the first wave equation
‘cause he got Separation Anxiety.
