Problem Set

Released 10 May 2016

This song was performed as part of my songwriting class this semester. A big thanks to Ming for playing the electric guitar.

You would not believe how many performers I tried to help me perform this song. I asked around 5-10 different people, and by the end, I still had to learn an entirely new instrument for it, the drum set.

Lyrics:

Add x and five, square both sides
Integrate then multiply
pi over square root of three
Don't forget to add the C
Green and Stokes theorems are nice
Calculate the volume thrice
Parametrization L
Vector cross products are hell

You I've worked on for five hours; It's time that you are done
An all out battle of huge proportions and yet no side has won
I can feel my mind slipping into the void
And there's not much time before it gets destroyed
These answers are so wrong
But I must keep moving on

One plus one is two, and two plus two is four
but don't ask any more; I don't know
But if this set is late, then my grade won't be great
and if I do that bad I won't pass
And I thought I was good at math,
But apparently I'm not.
As the problem set does nothing more
Than make my brain rot.

I'm not designed to be a machine cranking out numbers
Flawless arithmetic perfection without any errors
But even one small tiny mistake
Is enough to put my grade at stake
And I want to get this right
But the answers aren't in sight

One plus one is two, and two plus two is four
but don't ask any more; I don't know
My answer's always wrong; my confidence is gone
and I've unlearned everything that I knew
And I once thought that math was fun
But now it's a nightmare
Every concept new is going to screw me
Now I just don't care.

One plus one is two, and two plus two is four and
four plus four is eight and eight plus eight is sixteen
Problem set oh why so hard
This time you have gone too far
Never before have you taken
So much time for completion
One plus one is two, and two plus two is four and
four plus four is eight and eight plus eight is sixteen

Linear combination
three by three row reduction
square triangle echelon
matrix multiplication
abstract vector space v
with basis dimension three
maybe you can start to see
why math might be killing me

Why else would math be a four letter word?

If you need a commercial license, please reach out to me.