New Math lyrics

Artist	Tom Lehrer
Album(s)	That Was The Year That Was

Lyrics

some of you who have small children may have perhaps been put in the
Embarrassing position of being unable to do your child's arithmetic homework
Because of the current revolution in mathematics teaching known as the new
Math. so as a public service here tonight I thought I would offer a brief
Lesson in the new math. tonight we're going to cover subtraction. this is the
First room I've worked for a while that didn't have a blackboard so we will
Have to make due with more primitive visual aids, as they say in the "ed biz."
Consider the following subtraction problem, which I will put up here: 342 -
173.

Now remember how we used to do that. three from two is nine; carry the one, and
If you're under 35 or went to a private school you say seven from three is six
But if you're over 35 and went to a public school you say eight from four is
Six; carry the one so we have 169, but in the new approach, as you know, the
Important thing is to understand what you're doing rather than to get the right
Answer. here's how they do it now

You can't take three from two
Two is less than three
So you look at the four in the tens place
Now that's really four tens
So you make it three tens
Regroup, and you change a ten to ten ones
And you add them to the two and get twelve
And you take away three, that's nine
Is that clear?

Now instead of four in the tens place
You've got three
'Cause you added one
That is to say, ten, to the two
But you can't take seven from three
So you look in the hundreds place

From the three you then use one
To make ten ones..
(And you know why four plus minus one
Plus ten is fourteen minus one?
'Cause addition is commutative, right.)
And so you have thirteen tens
And you take away seven
And that leaves five..

Well, six actually
But the idea is the important thing

Now go back to the hundreds place
And you're left with two
And you take away one from two
And that leaves...?

Everybody get one?
Not bad for the first day!

Hooray for new math
New-hoo-hoo-math
It won't do you a bit of good to review math
It's so simple
So very simple
That only a child can do it!
Now that actually is not the answer that I had in mind, because the book that i
Got this problem out of wants you to do it in base eight. but don't panic. base
Eight is just like base ten really - if you're missing two fingers. shall we
Have a go at it? hang on

You can't take three from two
Two is less than three
So you look at the four in the eights place
Now that's really four eights
So you make it three eights
Regroup, and you change an eight to eight ones
And you add them to the two
And you get one-two base eight
Which is ten base ten
And you take away three, that's seven

Now instead of four in the eights place
You've got three
'Cause you added one
That is to say, eight, to the two
But you can't take seven from three
So you look at the sixty-fours

"Sixty-four? how did sixty-four get into it?" I hear you cry
Well, sixty-four is eight squared, don't you see?
(Well, you ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer.)

From the three you then use one
To make eight ones
And you add those ones to the three
And you get one-three base eight
Or, in other words
In base ten you have eleven
And you take away seven
And seven from eleven is four
Now go back to the sixty-fours
And you're left with two
And you take away one from two
And that leaves...?

Now, let's not always see the same hands
One, that's right!
Whoever got one can stay after the show and clean the erasers

Hooray for new math
New-hoo-hoo-math
It won't do you a bit of good to review math
It's so simple
So very simple
That only a child can do it!

Come back tomorrow night. we're gonna do fractions
Now I've often thought I'd like to write a mathematics text book someday because I have
A title that I know will sell a million copies. I'm gonna call it tropic of
Calculus

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