My Muse poked me again this morning, but light-hearted…
Archimedes wasn’t the very first,
But he did get pretty near,
And Ptolemy was very handy
In addressing a sphere.
The Chinese also chipped in,
And Liu Hui shaved it even closer,
Though to the average schoolboy
It is still a poser.
Aryabhata of Pataliputra,
A physics and mathematics hero,
Helped to get it even closer,
But was he thinking zero?
But still every high school student
From Alaska to Tanzania,
Will at first be confused,
And struggles with the idea.
Because it’s right in front of them,
As everyone is aware,
Look around the kitchen when eating ribs,
Pie are round, cornbread are square.
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