Similar Triangles - Math Rap by CalfordMath

"The tale of a couple of young triangle bachelors, scouting out a party looking to score a few phone numbers..."
[Complete Lyrics Below]

Ernie and Stu put their lines to the test when a cute angle is spotted at a hoppin' party. They rely on their knowledge of similarity, proportionality, and trigonometry to prove their compatibility.

This is a FUN little extra to any trigonometry unit! The more math the students understand, the more innuendos and trig references they'll pick up on.

You can also view this video on youtube

For more fun math ideas, check out some of my "Colouring by Math" worksheets!

two-step equations (Classic Video Game Picture)

or, keeping it triggy...

Law of Sines and Cosines (A 'Cute Triangle' Picture)

If you want to say thank you in a monetary way, consider purchasing my Gratuity for a Freebie.


Lyrics:
Freestyle Friday – © Timothy Calford 2009

Here's the tale of couple of young triangle bachelors
Scouting out a party looking to score a few phone numbers
Hitting up the scene looking their polygon best
Ernie and Stu would put their lines to the test
Stu there's a cute angle, three o'clock I'm going in
I'll even check for you if she got a congruent twin
Thanks Ernie but no, Imma make my own waves
I'm seeing that isosceles returning my gaze

Ernie headed left yo while Stu took a right
His mac-daddy swagger looking flyer than a kite
Thinking bout a way to muster up some conversation
Ernie sat beside her asking bout her dream vacation
Well, she said, for starters my name is Isabelle
And what's up with your question, I mean what is this show and tell
Burn! Ernie thought, man this wasn't like he planned
He'd need to recover quick to get up out this sand

You know Issy you and I we very much alike
I’m talking walking on a beach and taking picnic hikes
Your vertices have captured me, one corner to the other
Na’ I know you want hit the floor come dancing with a brother
Out of all three of your points, only one of em was right
Yeah I like to dance but that don't mean that I'm your type
I see you’re really trying hard but it’s all too familiar
You want dance with me you gotta prove that we are similar

Dang Ernie thought, I guess I’m coming at her all wrong
A little trigonometry and we be dancing to the next song
Look at my angles and then do some quick comparisons
They’re all the same as yours if you would match the corresponding ones
And Issy my hypotenuse is parallel to yours
My sides are in proportion to a scale factor of four
So call it intuition but we’re practically congruent
Two right angled triangles and one of them pursuant

Now some of y’all been asking me what happened to Stu
The notorious playa Casanova triangle number two
Lets roll back our minds and recall from the last chapter,
At a hoppin party scene it was an isosceles he was after
Have you ever waved at some who ya thought just waved at you?
Well a similar situation happened to our buddy stu
He thought that fine isosceles had eyed him at the door
But really her gaze was bypassing our bro

There was a fine scalene making a scene on the floor
Moving so fly his three corners looked like four
How's a shape got a chance against a dude like that?
Stu knew to compete he’d have break out just a little math.
Hey girl, he said, so tell what is your sine?
Mine’s point 488 but I round it to four nine.
You angles look acute, and I see they’re complimentary
You’re tan is very nice, and sine and cos they look the same to me!

Excuse me? She said looking him over in dismay
You should make like the sum of your angles and walk away!
You’re a hypotennuisance and you must be a square
To think you could impress without more trigonometric flare
See I don’t date a shape unless his sine ends in a 4
And I don’t want no scrub who has to round to sound like more.
My boyfriend will beat you till your opposite side’s adjacent
So I’d make like a poly-gone this um-ber-ella’s taken

Burn thought Stu, making a dash perpendicular
Some girl-triangles are just way too particular!
My pick up lines were clas-sic but maybe too up front for her
Next time I’ll bust out something maybe more extra curricular
And here the tale closes a bit anticlimactically
But Stu will not lose heart or give up flirting quite so easily
Stay tuned into your math book and practice trigonometry
Cause one day you will need it even if for now you don’t agree