Page:Tom Lehrer song lyrics (website).pdf/15

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The Derivative Song (dy/dx)

words by Tom Lehrer
music: "There'll Be Some Changes Made"
music: "by W. Benton Overstreet (1921)
music: "(public domain)

You take a function of x and you call it y
Take any x-nought that you care to try
You make a little change and call it delta x
The corresponding change in y is what you find nex'
And then you take the quotient and now carefully
Send delta x to zero, and I think you'll see
That what the limit gives us, if our work all checks,
Is what we call dy/dx,
It's just dy/dx.