My numbers never ending <br />Stretching to infinity <br />But never ever reaching there <br />And always further off than me <br />Are those strange transfinite numbers <br />Whose names sound like some odd code <br />Like aleph and omega <br />And, as Mr Godel showed <br />We need these abstract artefacts <br />Even if imaginary <br />To prove all higher theorems <br />And ensure consistency <br />But there are further mysteries <br />That from my numbers do arise <br />Like never ending decimals <br />Irrational numbers in disguise <br />They too are quite invented <br />Just convenient in use <br />When my simple natural numbers <br />Do not serve to make a proof <br />Oh the mysteries of numbers! <br />Oh the madness of all that! <br />When what started off as counting <br />Becomes higher abstract maths.<br /><br />David Keig<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-natural-numbers/
