Thinking outside the triangle: sophomores write, perform song about the Pythagorean Theorem

Sophomores Will Brown, Ben Cohen, and Max Glenn wanted to bring their passion for music into the math classroom. So they wrote a song that explains the Pythagorean Theorem to the tune of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and created an album cover (pictured above) that further demonstrates this fundamental geometric relation.

“We all love music and play instruments,” Cohen said. “We figured we could put our skills to use for our math project.”

(For those who need a refresher, the theorem states that in a right triangle, the square of the side opposite the right angle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. This is better known as a² + b² = c²).

They debuted the song to their math class this morning. Watch it below!

Lyrics to “Imagine There’s A Triangle”

Imagine there’s a triangle
One side’s bigger, that’s not fair
There’s magical letters that prove
If you use our theory, you cannot lose!

Imagine there’s some squares now!
The space inside them isn’t round
The lines on the triangle are the same as the sides of the square
That sounds confusing, check out Ben’s hair

If you add the space inside the squares with each other
They might just equal their mother (the big side)
Hey, that might just prove our theorem
This song isn’t quite done

Imagine Pythagoras
Living for today
He’d be very old

You may say we’re dreamers
But we’re not the only ones
The reason this works,
Is because the two small squares add up to the big one