"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
    graph about a 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!


Send any comments or questions to: David Pleacher