Mathematical Poetry

Here are a few poems written by students in Dr. V's cryptography class during May term 2003.

Codes

My friend the computer
is worth its weight in pewter
To help break codes
without turning us into toads

It works so fast
mod 1,999,872,321 is a joy at last
Vigenere and affine ciphers were a ball
and Diffie-Helman, RSA, DES, and El Gamal

Keeping our messages secure and close
thanks to discrete log and euler both
Lets jump for joy at the core
of fun and ask to do some more

Megan Cornell

a haiku

Fermat's Last Theorem
Oh, how hard it was to solve
Thanks, Andrew Wiles

Jenifer Boshes

a limerick

Fermat was one of a kind
who did not deal with sine
he went to a party
started shooting bacardi
and said, "hey, 151 is prime."

K.T. Linn

Ode to a proof

Roses are red
Violets are blue
a to the n plus b to the n does not equal
c to the n for all n greater than two

Fermat's Last Theorem
unsolved problem in past
many thought they solved
not many proofs did last

a marginal note
a larger than marginal proof
so long that wondeful thing
stood aloof, oh so aloof!

Andrew Wiles solved it
a larger than marginal feat
Wiles' proof of more than 100 pages
Fermat's maybe incomplete

Fermat claimed he had it
but that it wouldn't fit
if wiles took 100 pages, was Fermat's too long?
maybe just a bit.

Noah Keola Unabia