Number Debate
Once π and i had a debate
About which is better
A square root of minus one
Or being a Greek letter.
"Be rational," said i to π,
"You make things complicated--
No matter how they measure you,
You always come truncated."
Said π to i: "So what, my friend,
It's really no big deal--
I'm transcendental unlike you,
And you aren’t even real."
"But if you want to be exact,
Then you come nowhere near
To finding areas of disks
Or a volume of a sphere".
Said i to π: "It may be so,
But you forgot to mention
That you're a point on a line,
And I have two dimensions."
"For if you want nth roots of one,
Therein is my appeal--
I'll find all roots of one for you--
Imaginary and real."
"And I can add and multiply
All points in a plane,
For I'm more than decimals
By real line constrained."
While they continued to debate,
Infinity appeared,
Saying to both π and i:
"You both are nowhere near."
"You both are finite, real or not,
But I'd take a bet
That none of you can match the size
Of countable sets."
So it was settled--π and i
Were finally set free,
For both found they're too small
To match infinity.
March 26, 2008
Copyright © 2008 by Alexander Shaumyan