THE VIDEO SHELF · new math satire
Tom Lehrer - New Math (Animated)
An amateur animation of Tom Lehrer's satirical song New Math, which pokes fun at 1960s math teaching and subtraction in base 8. The animation illustrates the old and new subtraction methods.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN brings it up whenever curriculum fads or Common Core complaints appear, as a funny precedent from the 1960s.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Jared Khan
- Topic
- new math satire
- Format
- comedy
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 4
- HN mentions in dataset
- 14
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2013–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
My favorite Tom Lehrer song is probably New Math. [VIDEO] With its clever lyrics and rapid fire delivery it sounds like it could have come out last year and not fifty years ago.
MrMember on Hacker News · 2018-04
In Tom Lehrer at 90: a life of scientific satireIt's inevitable to link to this now: [VIDEO] It's Tom Lehrer, about 50 years ago, explaining subtraction in the context of the "new" math (the base-8 stuff starts at 2:40). Worth a listen.
mturmon on Hacker News · 2013-11
In A ridiculous Common Core test for first gradersYes, he's mocking the idea of teaching borrowing. He gives the way he thinks subtraction should be taught in the intro. It's a way that, as far as I can tell, hasn't been taught in America in over half a century. After the intro, he …
123894893 on Hacker News · 2024-05
In Why did Tom Lehrer swap fame for obscurity?
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.