Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling,

In mystic force and magic spelling.

Celestial sprites elucidate,

All my own striving can't relate.

What Am I ?

It's a device for remembering the digits of pi.
The number of letters in each word represents a digit (sir=3, I=1, bear=4, a=1, rhyme=5, etc). This verse gives us 21 digits (20 decimal places). There are also two more lines that I have seen to this mnemonic:

Or locate they who can cogitate
And so finally terminate. Finis.

Or, 26433832795, giving us pi to 31 places:
3.1415926535897932384626433832795.

Interesting to note: the next digit is zero, usually represented by a ten-letter word.

=)

Posted by DJ on 2003-04-01 14:15:55