19 November 2007

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

    Okay, since you're so smart, why don't you try doing it in Roman numerals?
      Trout Fishing in America

Last night found me at a Girl Scout sing-a-long. One of the songs that went on for quite awhile was "18 Wheels on a Big Rig." The song is written by Heywood Banks, though I'm more familiar with the version by Trout Fishing In America. For those unfamiliar, the song is different ways of counting the big rig's wheels:

Oh there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 wheels on a big rig,
And they're rollin' rollin' rollin', rollin' rollin' rollin'.

And so on, counting backwards (18, 17, 16, ...), the even wheels (2, 4, 6, ...), etc. TFIA has a funny bit where he counts in Roman numerals with impressive speed. The Girl Scouts couldn't quite match that, but they got through it. They also sang Spanish, then opened the microphone to audience members who could count in other languages. We heard French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Italian, Hebrew, and Gaelic. An impressive list that left me thinking of more geeky obscure options....

Binary:
Oh there's 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 1010, 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, 1111, 10000, 10001, 10010 wheels on a big rig.

Klingon:
Oh there's wa', cha', wej, loS, vagh, jav, Soch, chorgh, Hut, wa'maH, wa'maH wa', wa'maH cha', wa'maH wej, wa'maH loS, wa'maH vagh, wa'maH jav, wa'maH Soch, wa'maH chorgh wheels on the big rig.

Hexadecimal:
Oh there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10, 11, 12 wheels on the big rig.

Prime numbers:
Oh there's 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17 wheels on the big rig.

Wheels divided by zero:
Oh there's infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity, infinity wheels on the big rig.

And they're rollin' rollin' rollin', rollin' rollin' rollin'.

2 comments:

Sharon GR said...

I love my geek.

Anonymous said...

Andrew,

That is one of the most stupendously geeky things I have ever read.

Warmly, Brenda