The Log Song

Copyright 2005 by Jeff Suzuki

Historically, mnemonic songs and jingles were the way that people learned, in the days before printing: there's a long poem by Alexandre of Villedieu (ca. 1240) whose title translates as Ode to Algorithm, and which describes, in verse form, all the basic arithmetic operations using the newfangled Arabic numerals.

There is a great disagreement over the use of didactic songs and ditties. Some teachers are really offended by them, since they replace conceptual understanding with jingles. Others contend that if it works, use it. I'm somewhere in the middle: these songs do not replace conceptual understanding (and I strongly object to ditties like "Don't ask why---just invert and multiply" for division of fractions), but they do have a place in helping students learn the basic algorithms. (More: if a student writes a mnemonic song, they have to know the algorithm well enough to describe it)

This may have been the first filk I wrote as an adult. The tune is the Slinky tune, but most in the filking community recognize it as the log song from "Ren and Stimpy" and---truth be told---this is what got me started on it.

To multiply, add

This makes it not bad,

For nth roots you need to divide.

Subtract for quotients,

And for exponents,

The power comes down outside!

It's log! It's log!

It's integral one over x.

It's log! It's log!

Its inverse is e to the x!

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