"From a Distance"

lyrics copyright 1998 Lawrence Mark Lesser ; all rights reserved
may be sung to the tune of Julie Gold’s "From a Distance”

 
 
 From a distance, some things about a graph
  are easier to see.
 From a distance, the ends of its path
   are more clear to me.
 From a distance, there's a big picture
  containing all we need-
 Like all the roots and all the turns
  somewhere on the screen.
 
 But from a distance, some things about a graph
  are harder to see.
 From a distance, two roots back to back
  could look like one to me!
 From a distance, finding what's interesting
  is hard to do precisely,
 But zooming in, we'll scan the screen
  close enough to see.
 We are zooming in, we are zooming out,
  As we try to find the right distance.
 
 Now from a distance, some curves look the same
  as they do when we are close.
 From a distance, patterns repeat along a cloud or coast.
 From a distance there is similarity,
  and it echoes at every scale;
 Let's find what makes those Koch snowflakes
  and follow the fractal trail!