"From a Distance"

(new lyrics by Lawrence Mark Lesser
may be sung to the tune of "From a Distance," by Julie Gold)


	From a distance, some things about a graph
	  are easier to see.
	From a distance, the ends of its path
 	  are more clear to me.
	From a distance, there's a big picture
	  containing all we need-
	Like all the roots and all the turns
	  somewhere on the screen.

	But from a distance, some things about a graph
	  are harder to see.
	From a distance, two roots back to back
	  could look like one to me!
	From a distance, finding what's interesting
	  is hard to do precisely,
	But zooming in, we'll scan the screen
	  close enough to see.
	We are zooming in, we are zooming out,
	  As we try to find the right distance.

	Now from a distance, some curves look the same
	  as they do when we are close.
	From a distance, patterns repeat along a cloud or coast.
	From a distance there is similarity,
	  and it echoes at every scale;
	Let's find what makes those Koch snowflakes
	  and follow the fractal trail!