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May I Have A Large Container Of Coffee?

from Honesty And Thorns by Calum Carlyle

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co-written with Donna Devine, she says: The famous mnemonic for approximating the digits of Pi is: "May I have a large container of coffee?" Counting the letters in each word gives the sequence 3,1,4,1,5,9,2,6.

Just to refresh your memories: Pi is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet. It's also a mathematical constant. It allows you to find the circumference of a circle if you know the radius or diameter, or the radius and diameter if you only know the circumference. The Greek form of Pi is used in mathematics and scientific settings. Johan Lambert, a German mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, studied Pi in 1770. He proved it was an irrational number.
(Being dyscalculic, I consider ALL numbers to be irrational! ;) )

I say: By the way, verse two really got my inner pedant wondering, so i looked up Johann Heinrich Lambert's biography:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Heinrich_Lambert
seds.org/~spider/spider/Misc/lambert.html
It seems that he didn't ever have a wife or kids, but he did indeed do a fair bit more than just calculate Pi. Also, he was Swiss, not German, though he spent most of his life in Germany. :-)

lyrics

I watch you serve
Those cafe meals
You smile so shyly
I wonder how it'd feel
To have you look at me
That way
I'd sure like to know
But don't know what to say

I'll hang around the counter
Till you notice me waiting
While in my imagination
There'll be no hesitating
I'll simply say:

Come over here, waitress
there's no need to be shy
I'm a lonely astronomer
Half in love with the sky
May I have a large container of coffee?
It'd go so well with my Pi

Johann Lambert
Started it all
He played with numbers
But that was his call
Wonder if he had a wife
And kids
Or was calculating Pi
All he ever did

I'll hang around the counter
Till you notice me staring
I know I look like a fool
But I'm way past caring
I'll simply say:

Come over here, waitress
There's no need to be shy
I'm a lonely astronomer
I love you and the sky
May I have a large container of coffee?
It'd go so well with my Pi

I'm a silver-tongued devil when it comes to equations
But words get tangled in real-life situations
Yet my heart's only human, I ache for your smile
Oh, you're moving towards me...

Come over here, waitress
There's no need to be shy
I'm a lonely astronomer
And I love you more than the sky
May I have a large container of coffee?
It'd go so well with my Pi

credits

from Honesty And Thorns, track released January 8, 2010
words: Donna Devine, music: Calum Carlyle

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Calum Carlyle Edinburgh, UK

I'm a musician and songwriter from Orkney, now based in Edinburgh. Have a listen to some of my music, i hope you enjoy it!

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