Tom Lehrer- New Math

[PolaroidNerd99]

This is how my school works

[AlexanderMazarakis]

ARITHMETIC IS HARDER THEN ALGEBRA!!!

[obiwanobiwan13]

@AlexanderMazarakis I beg to differ.  ;)

[skylarfied97]

haha, my class listened to this and The Elements during language XD then The Elements again today in science

[squizzage]

ok you suckers are left with cleaning the erasers. oh the joys of bieng stupid.

[squizzage]

doing homework

based on a true story

Dad: Now how many times does 5 go into 120

Kid:5. well, 6 actually but the idea is the important thing

[macnzlovesdoctorwho]

oh and YAY I GET TO CLEAN THE ERASERS!

[macnzlovesdoctorwho]

i can't listen to this song with out making wild hand gestures.

[squizzage]

i was doing my math homework and my dad was looking it over with me and the ending came up and it was, "how many times does 5 go into 120?" I accidentally said 5 which i came back with, "well 6 actually, the idea is he important thing"

[squizzage]

i love how no one realizes that 13-7 actually equals 6 untill he tells them

[jtull89]

@squizzage Well, I didn't even follow him up to THAT point when I first heard it, LOL.

[DPhyreROX]

Tom Lehrer is an absolute GENIUS :) "Its so simple, so very simple, that only a child can do it!!" brilliant ^_^

[samsteam1]

i feel like adick cus tis is the way i learned it

[maslina10]

The man was obviously traumatized by his math classes.:)

[pokepuncher]

...Judging by the comments, it seems as if I'm not joined by as many as I thought in having a basic knowledge of bases o_O

[marsbar211]

the like/dislike bar looks like a pencil. Perfect for math

[juloph]

Base 8, wait what O:

[FrinkelJinks97]

@juloph Basically, rather than 10s, 100s and 1000s you end up with 8s, 64s and 512s.

[jack002tuber]

Base 8 is just like base 10....... if you're missing two fingers.

[CalibratedSiper]

only a child can do0-hoh hoo it!

[dixonhpboosh]

New maths is a lot harder now

[darian2010ish]

part teacher, part comedian, part musician, and part awesome. he is the perfect person.

[thalia268]

Now I'm second guessing my math homework.... Sad, but funny! XD

[CrafterBen]

I feel sorry for transcribe audio on this vid... he almost got it right...

[StickmanLovAR]

@CrafterBen but the idea is the important thing.

[deanchef2]

Those 15 people disliked it at 1:21

[ElizabethLarkings]

REGROUP!!!



[DemonDancingDove]

Now my brqain is trying to do fractions in base eight in my head and I 'm getting a headache!

[186mjn]

It always bugs me in school that the way you find the answer gets you more marks than getting the correct answer.

[littleKingdompet2]

I already not like math, this only makes it worse! If I had him as teacher, I'd fail without a doubt

[504379]

new math is not 46 years old, but 46 years new!



[akulkis]

@504379

New math is a HORRIBLE way to teach arithmetic to children.

Throwing set theory and concepts such as commutation as a formal definition are just way beyond 1st grade kids in their first weeks of formal instruction. (and I was reading BEFORE I ever set foot in a kindergarten classroom)

[akulkis]

@akulkis

By the way, I'm an engineer, so my comment is not made out of frustration with math -- but that concepts appropriate for 8th graders were (stupidly) thrown at us as 1-graders, and brought about no learning, only confusion.

[minecraftrocksful]

@LilyTheAnnoyance

It will be awesome!

[TheRealMarauder]

15 people don't understand how to do new math.

[UnableToBleed]

...You know, if I did that slowly, maybe, just maybe, it'll add up to what I have in -my- book, but then again -my- book says to do it in the third base, so I think I'll just move it all up ten and see where that takes me

[Ouchimoo]

my brain just sploded

[nnoose]

is it bad that i understood that?

[MrJDurao]

@nnoose I got it too ;) it's not that hard...it's just that he says it very quickly.

[186mjn]

@nnoose No. That's how I was thaught. Though not at that speed of course.

[TheNinjaMurais]

keep pressing 1 it sounds like Whore in the tenths place! XD

[omeufungfueforte]

this time you really got me confused

[TursipielAlthins]

OK, seriously. Listen to this song and then listen to "The Multiplication Song" from the Animaniacs and tell me that song isn't a blatant homage to this one. I love people who do stuff like that.

[emilyanne4421]

I want him as my Chem and Math teacher next year xD

[withashine]

base 8 sounds confusing. know wonder only children can do it

[squirrelant]

I actually took the time to memorize this... three hours well spent.

[ishouldplayzelda]

@squirrelant how? i'm trying to memorize it too and i'm doing the 'listen to it over and over agian while singing it' method and it's very slow. what did you do?

[squirrelant]

@ishouldplayzelda listen to a section, practice it at a tempo you feel comfortable at, and speed it up from there

[ishouldplayzelda]

@squirrelant i have all of the base 10 part memorized but i'm still struggling with the 'addition is communitive' verse

[OperaGhostObsession]

..... Sorry wasn't listening. Can you repeat that? haha

[cacheec]

15 people actually thought 5 was the answer to 13 - 7.

[HDtutorials100]

@cacheec lol 15 now :P

[jontycampbell]

@cacheec How could you possibly think that?

[AmzSongwriter007]

@cacheec It is. In base 9 :)

[MasterOfEnk]

I'll admit...i had to google "base 10"...

[NoisqueVoaProduction]

There are only 10 types of people in the world —

those who understand binary, and those who don't.

This joke relies on the fact that mathematical expressions, just as expressions in natural languages, may have multiple meanings. Like other puns, the humor is derived from an ambiguous meaning; in this case, the expression 10 in the binary numeral system is equal to the decimal number two.

[EgonAndEgon]

Ooh, for those YouTube-ers who really get the hang of this song, look up Tom Lehrer's Derivative Song.

[EgonAndEgon]

"It won't do you a bit of good to review math!"

Is Lehrer saying that reviewing math will accomplish nothing? I think I gotta review the base eight thing. Once X and Y and Σ and... I dunno, 维 maybe... get in there you probably really gotta review once in a while.

[Tilo0Tantori]

@EgonAndEgon

What does a textile have to do with math?

[motherewok10]

I'm so confused :')

[RaashyxMusicLover]

I don't get base eight lol.

[Gyroglle]

@RaashyxMusicLover In base-10, what you have when you write down 542, is 2 'ones', 4 'tens' and 5 'hundreds'. In base-8, that would be 2 'ones', 4 'eights' and 5 'sixty fours'. Get it now?

[Thyrfing84]

If I were to teach math in grade school, on the first day I would recite this video (at the same speed) and then tell the class to repeat what I just did... and that it would count for half of their grade for the entire year...

[Snowbreeze400]

I love this song!! It kills my guts

[Saethchan]

I've always loved this song. <3

[laurbeezy]

I'm having flash backs to Discrete math. o_O

[LilyTheAnnoyance]

I want Tom Lehrer for math class.

[mario1is1awesome]

@LilyTheAnnoyance Or science.



[cadearras]

@LilyTheAnnoyance Amen!

[MadDuckInc151]

This song shouldn't piss me off as much as it does. Four years of algebra being drilled into my head will probably generate that reaction.

[hafszz]

O_o

[SaiKimmiTV]

15 people are math teachers.

[gammoregan]

@SaiKimmiTV I disagree, I think math teachers would like this song more than not like it.

[HannahMayJune]

this NEEDS to go to my math teacher......hahaha he'd appreciate it.

[zombiemeowk]

I got it :D ...Till he started going on about 8's o__O

[thethekristo69]

yeer thats really fukin clear

[x0xbethaNyyx0x]

or you could just use a calculator..

[ILuvDrizzt]

@x0xbethaNyyx0x

But what if you don't haaaaave a calculator?

[x0xbethaNyyx0x]

@ILuvDrizzt then I guess you're a bit screwed!

[iElite6809]

Octal <3

[olivierfromricochet]

13-7=5 because ducks were involved.

[TomTomG00]

@olivierfromricochet

chuck norris knows why

[Erniethecatisawesom]

This makes me like math! Why can't we listen to this instead of do worksheets?

[ristancarl78]

@Erniethecatisawesom I KNOW RIGHT

[TacticusPrime]

13-7=6... how could 13-7=5? They used do math a really fucked up way.

[Atheist10]

@TacticusPrime

New math

[LilyTheAnnoyance]

@TacticusPrime

Ahem, I take it you paused the video when that was said and typed that comment? Because that was the joke.

And no, they didn't. It made more sense back then, because nowadays one is wrong if he finds the answer in a way differing from modern standards.

Like me. It drove my teachers insane that I did math differently. But my mind just works differently. :)

[TacticusPrime]

@LilyTheAnnoyance He says 13-7=5, which is clearly wrong so... what's the joke? They didn't understand the algorithm behind what they are doing in the old system. That makes higher level proofs later extremely confusing. Nobody gives a fuck if you can magic it some other way... unless you can explain the algorithm.

[LilyTheAnnoyance]

@TacticusPrime *COUGH* In case it didn't register, he said "Well, six actually...."

This is NEW math, by the way. If the title wasn't obvious enough.

Also, don't tell me whether someone does or doesn't "give a fuck" about what I say and/or do, because I think I can gather it from my readers, fellow professors and students, which certainly seem to.

[TacticusPrime]

@LilyTheAnnoyance New Math in 1963!!! People have been doing it New Math style since before college students parents were born.

[LilyTheAnnoyance]

@TacticusPrime You seem to be arguing more with yourself than with I.

[smoog]

@TacticusPrime

Part of the joke is that he was a math professor at Harvard and MIT. Also he was pointing out just how clumbersome and unwieldy 'New Math' was and how it could easily lead to simple mistakes.

[TacticusPrime]

@smoog It is important to understand why math works the way it does. Being able to do math in multiple bases allows one to understand Mayan math, for one. They still teach the algorithms in school, they just don't emphasize doing math in other bases. That seems like a sensible compromise.

[saullukas]

awsome i want fractions

[thedeepsea94]

i didnt rly get the base 8 part cuz i havent done it at school yet, but it sounds so interesting, ill go ask my teacher O:

[CainmosniMirrored]

This guy just ripped off Abbot and Costello.

watch?v=rLprXHbn19I

[Ruinedbad]

WTF is this base stuff?

[TomTomG00]

@Ruinedbad

you count like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 11 12..

[ShoeUnited]

@TomTomG00 Actually, you count 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 20...

Base Number systems start with 0.

[TomTomG00]

@ShoeUnited

LOL sorry, what was I thinking >.<

(my mistake is as stupid as thinking base 10(normal counting) is like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 XI 11 .. 18 19 XXI 21)

[ShoeUnited]

@TomTomG00

Hey it's cool. We all make mistakes. :) No hate, no worries. :D

[XxxBOOKWORMx2012xxX]

lmao this is like my 1st day of ap calculus

[bobomb1986]

iElite, what Lehrer means by commutative is that you can move (commute) the numbers to all different places within the number question and it still produces the same answer. Therefore, addition and multiplication are commutative (for example, 3 + 2 = 5 and 2 + 3 = 5, 3 x 2 = 6 and 2 x 3 = 6) but division is not commutative (for example, 4 / 2 = 2, but 2 / 4 ≠ 2). That is to say, 2 / 4 is not equal to 2.

And, AngieCupCake88, base 8 addition would be much simpler if we were The Simpsons!

[pazietazie]

to farst sloww it down

[vananjacob4life]

?!?!?! im lost lol

[AngieCupCake88]

Base 8 is not simple!!! x x

[omnomnomnomnomnommm]

they didn't do base 8

[angryfeet1]

i am confuse :(

[clawcarboy18]

could you please make the text arrive a tad early? for singing along it is quite annoying to have the lyrics after he sung them

[samsteam1]

lol brilliant

[iElite6809]

Addition is accumulative, not cummutative, or is it both?

[skrewdreyever]

i sorta dislike this and ill say why. its not the whole song!

[InLovingMemoryOct15]

11 people r not smart enough to like this song

[hibeango]

011010010010000001101100011010­010110101101100101001000000110­001001100001011100110110010100­100000011101000111010101110010­011101000110110001100101011100­11

[lapinmichael]

da fook. mean. The FUCK IS THIS SHIT

[DarkEmonga88]

My math teacher from third grade must be wondering why she just cringed (at the exact second I played this song) XD

[pedrojimenez36]

12 people didn't like this video.

[bowserhunter1]

The idea is the important thing. ;)

[drumstyx6464]

I'd probably convert it to binary and do it that way :P

[LewisTee08]

base 6 is better its famous

[Mattysmyth0593]

I WANT BASE 2

[gsppcrocks10]

... *brain explodes*

[helpi4gotmykeys]

9 people clearly failed school.

[Ewtube101]

̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿̿̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿ ̿ ur how do you do that!?!?!?!

[InfestedPunxx]

"I hear you cry" xD

[ShoeUnited]

10 people hit dislike in base 8.

[DWfannie]

Can't handle it!

But it is funny :D

[EmortalDragon]

(●̪•)=ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿̿̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿ ̿ ٩๏̯͡๏۶ im going insane!!!!!!!

[Jacklogion]

Wow, I'm seing number's everywere now... 10_08

What!? XD Great song, great artist! Lehen...

The maker of the video also did a great work. ;)

[newtkiller]

@elliota

Actually base eight starts at 0 and counts up to 7. This would change your count to: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,11,12... And so forth. Much like how binary is 0 and 1 not 1 and 2

[elliotfa]

@newtkiller yeah my bad, i was in maths class today and worked out my mistake -.-

[mabarry3]

@newtkiller I thought it was 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, 11, because the number 10 does not exist. I guess that makes sense

[minutospoeticos]

@mabarry3 Watch out, 10 does exist in every base, as long as I know. in base 8, the 10 goes for the 8; because it means "one eight and zero ones" (that's how 2+2=10 in base 4, because 4 got substituted by the 10). A good way to study it is by thinking you can never write down a number equal or higher than the base in just one place. So, base 4 would mean: 0-1-2-3-10-11-12-13-20-21...32­-33-100, or the famous binary would be 0-1-10-11-100-101-110-111-1000­...

Well, at least that's how I did it lol

[mabarry3]

Reminds me a little of binary (no, I'm not a nerd, my brother told me how to do binary a few days ago :D )

There are 10 types of people: Those who understand binary ... And those who don't. (You have to understand binary :D)

[DoctorWhoovian]

@mabarry3

Lolololol. Thinkgeek, right.

[broadwaylol]

Speaking as someone who fails miserably at both 'old' and 'new' math, I appreciate this even as it makes me feel foolish.

[thesacredbeast2000]

base 8 is hard i like to stick to base 10 and base 2, other than that math is easy

[mabarry3]

@thesacredbeast2000 But base 2 (binary) can be annoying too (375 = 0101110111) (1 + 2 + 4 + 16 + 32 +64 +256 = 375). In other words ... I like to stick to base ten only. However, if you use base 8 in TERMS OF base ten, it isn't that hard (for example 12 base 8 which is 10 base 10 and you take away three that's 7)

[tattieno1]

Why do computer scientists get halloween and christmas muddled up?

Because OCT 31 = DEC 25

[SANTARII]

@tattieno1 Oh my that's amazing!

[TheRockureworld1]

@tattieno1 i dnt get it :D

[flowiepanda]

@tattieno1 lol that's so old :P

[flowiepanda]

@tattieno1 HAHAHAHAHAHA tropic of calculus that always gets me

[scoobydoorocks10]

@tattieno1 HAHAHA i get it, and its true,. if u dont get it, LOOK IT UP! i betcha this poor youtuber doesent wanna answer ur stupid questions in 1 week when u can look it up in a few minutes

[Mollypop1193]

i love his song!!!!

[Sue71]

If this is new math (which I learned in the early 80s), what was old math?

[changeling0203]

I'm a student teacher in a 5th grade class, and this is pretty much a transcript of my morning math lessons.

[Unspike]

Why are people laughing in the background?

[SpidersAreNotScary]

@Unspike This was recorded at one of his shows, so there's a live audience.

[FlamerockProductions]

@BeNotNormal I take that back. 82 in base 8 is 122. 100 in base 8 = 64 in base 10 (so 110 = 72, and 120 = 80)

[rachel237linda]

what's base 8???

[WaveOfTranquility]

I give this a 4+10+-1+-8 which gives us 5 cause addition is commutative, right.

[DeoSoleil]

"I hear you cry"

[mabarry3]

Base 8 IS like base 10 if you're missing two fingers :).

Tropic of calculus? Where on the map is that ;)?

It really WON'T do you a bit of good to review math!!

[HavokLurch]

My whole concept of math has just been raped by Tom Leherer...

[mabarry3]

@HavokLurch I'f you're in doubt about your security, send the marines!

[BeNotNormal]

Ah, now THIS I can do for my school talent show. That would be... awesome.

[BeNotNormal]

I am literally in love with this man, in spite of the fact that he is now... let's see... 82, but in base 8 that would be...

[mabarry3]

@BeNotNormal Wouldn't that be 112?

[NickyArn]

@mabarry3 i get 66. because the 2 will still be 2 but the 80 is 8 tens and 8 eights are 64 so 64+2 is 66?? right?

[mabarry3]

@NickyArn Maybe, I got 112 because 8 = 10 or 11 in base 8. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,11,12 etc, so the 2 stays the same, but you may be right too, I've never worked with base 8.

[FlamerockProductions]

@NickyArn That depends--if you want the numerical value to stay the same, then 82 b10 = 122 b8. However, if you want the notation to stay the same, then 82 b8 = 66 b10.

[mabarry3]

@FlamerockProductions Why 122? It goes 7,8,11, so it would be 112, not 122.

[sli908]

@NickyArn I believe that is the correct answer.

2 is in the 1's place (8^0 = 1)

8 is in the 8's place (8^1 = 8). 8 eights are 64. 64 + 2 = 66

[mabarry3]

@sli908 You can keep the numerical value or the notation, but not both. The answer (depending on what you want to keep) is 66 OR 112.

[sli908]

@mabarry3 112 base 8 is 66 base 10.

So what are you trying to say?

[FlamerockProductions]

@BeNotNormal 82 in base 8 would be 102. All eights turn into tens.

[SuperKwake]

Well, You Ask A Silly Question, And You Get A Sill Answer. LOL! :)

[floppetylove]

I wish I'd had this when I was learning maths :) He is a GENIUS!!!

[purenrgclubpenguin56]

lol wut?

[coolcatevan9]

Tom Leher is awesome!