Tom Lehrer: New Math (concert live) (1965)
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Published 2016-04-17
For example, subtracting 2 from 5 is the same as 5 – 2, which is 3.
The first part of the video (my signature slide) is overlaid by the final bars of "La Borinqueña", which I played on my keyboard.
The main part of the song is one of Tom Lehrer's live performed songs, "New Math". It is part of Tom's third published live performance album, "That Was The Year That Was". But I obtained the actual music from the box set, "The Remains of Tom Lehrer", which was released in 2000. Enjoy.
And the last part is the main theme of "The Phantom of the Opera", by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Simply the 'cherry on top', and my personal song.
Here's the description Tom Lehrer himself made about the song: "Third, for the benefit anyone who wants to follow the subtraction problems worked out in 'New Math', they are:
342₁₀ – 173₁₀ = 169₁₀ and 342₈ – 173₈ = 147₈.
(If this doesn't make any sense to you, ask the nearest eight-year-old you meet to explain it.)
[This attempt to revise the teaching of mathematics in schools was something of a threat in 1965, but it subsequently passed through the curriculum, not like a breath of fresh air but more like a kidney stone.]"
Sorry I gave so much information about the music earlier. I don't want to get screwed by stupid WMG again. They are a bunch of arse-holes. And to make sure I am not screwed, have them read the following credits:
Recorded at the hungry i, San Francisco, CA (7/26/65-7/31/65)
Produced by JIMMY HILLIARD
Engineered by DON GEIS
From the album "That Was The Year That Was," Reprise #RS-6179 (1965)
"The Remains of Tom Lehrer" Compilation ℗ 2000 Warner Bros. Records Inc. & Rhino Entertainment Company.
All Comments (21)
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It has just occurred to me that The Incredibles is set in the sixties and Bob has trouble with Dash’s math homework so bravo to Pixar on that one
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He makes the new math sound complicated as hell, but since this is the way I learned it, to me it makes actually perfect sense xD.
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This song is so old the new math has become the old math, that new math has become old and now we have a new new NEW math.
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Proof that tom was the bo burnham of the 20th century
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I genuinely can't comprehend how they did math the old way.
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I don’t think that people realize that this “new math” was new in 1965
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Hadn't heard this in a long time. What a clever and funny guy. He's 92. May he live to 120.
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He's from the 60's but he sounds like he could be present day. Like a 60's bo burnham.
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This man was ahead of his time.
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90s kid here... in my 30s im beginning to realize the amount of ways to be "objective" and/or "efficient" render both concepts as self defeating.
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When you realize their new math is your old math 😅
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this guy belongs in the modern age . oh wait hes still alive,
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It's crazy that New Math was the 'convoluted' way of doing math in the 60's (even though that's what every adult uses today), whereas Common Core is today's convulated way of doing math. To be honest I didn't even know that the way I did subtraction/addition had a name until this video!
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As a student I understand it, as a human watching it I lost track after you started singing
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Base eight is base 10 if you’re missing two fingers, that was a brilliant analogy. Even though they denied him tenure, Harvard didn’t hire no dummies lol.
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Pianist, singer, comic, teacher and above all mathematician. Pure respect.
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Grew up in the 60's as something approaching which in those days was called a 'beatnik'...... my red book waving Maoist mates and I used to listen to this chap on a regular basis .....'An evening wasted with TL' was my particular favorite, but they were / are all still good. At 70, his drole witticisms and subtle remarks still bring a smile to my face and time warp me back to intellectually unstimulating, pot smoking, baked beans eating, cheapest wine you can get (guaranteed to get your eyesight back in a week) , everyone dressed in black, wonderful evenings. Nowadays we say 'emo', I suppose. Many thanks for uploading.
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"The important thing is to understand what you're doing rather than to get the right answer." Truer words have never been said about math class. Also I was taught this way of doing math in elementary and middle school... We had to review base 10 at the start of every year for 6 years! And DON'T even get me STARTED on multiplication and division! I couldn't get past 8s and didn't get Oreos on my ice cream sundae at the end of the year!
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I took advanced calc 13 years ago and this song JUST actually explained bases to me. Dang.
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Well the idea that understanding what you're doing is more important than getting the right answer is 100% true in all seriousness. If you want the right answer, you could just use a calculator, but that's not the point of learning math. It's interesting to realize from this video that every generation always seems to think that there's some imaginary "new math", I had no idea this idea went back to the 60's. I love this guy's music 😂
