The Space Child's Mother Goose

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1 

There was a man in our town, 
An Astrophysicist,
  Who found a place
  In Hyperspace
By just a twist of wrist

But when he sought the Nearer Now
And gave another twist,
  He found that he'd
  Become somehow
A Cyberneticist.

From The Space Child’s Mother Goose, by Frederick Winsor

2

There was an old woman with notions quite new,
She never told children the things they should do.
she hoisted the covers up over her head
When people explained where her theories led.

–ibid

3

This is the way the Physicist rides:
A quantum, a quantum, a quantum.

This is the way the Agronomist rides:
I plant 'em, I plant 'em, I plant 'em.

This is the way the Philosopher rides:
O Plato! O Plato! O Plato!

This is the way the Rocketman rides:
JATO! JATO!! JATO!!!
Quantum: The quantum is only a tittle or jot:
On a little theory hangs a lot.

4

These excerpts from The Space Child’s Mother Goose, by Frederick Winsor and Marian Parry, published by Simon and Schuster, are quoted under the rules allowing samples for review or other purposes. And because I like them.

And hereinafter the beginning of another, longer, example:
This is the Theory Jack built.

This is the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack built.

This is Constant K
That saved the Summary
Based on the Mummery
Hiding the Flaw
That lay in the Theory Jack Built.

Does anyone else recognize this?

5

Normal space is high and wide,
Hyperspace is just outside.
-Frederick Winsor

It’s a great book. I found it through “A Random Walk in Science” by RL Weber.

A new graduate student did a card catalog search on “Random Walk” in the university library. This was back in the 1980’s, on a terminal. He did a search on the title, and not the subject of “Random Walk”.

He checked it out, brought it and several other books back to the physics department, and then got very confused when he tried to read Weber’s book. It starts with “When Does Jam become Marmalade?” He was expecting “Random Walk” and got humor. Sometimes, humor doesn’t translate well.

“Random Walk” references Winsor’s book. And it’s a delight.

6

I learned about it a few years ago, and managed to buy a used copy a while back, and I love it. It is trippy in the best way.

7

This book’s been around since the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, hasn’t it? I first saw it circa 1970.

Here’s a page with the complete text of The Theory That Jack Built and a few others:
http://www.phy.duke.edu/~hsg/134/poems/space-childs-mother-goose.txt

Here’s a review of a more recent reprinting, mentioning that the book has become a classic, with earlier copies selling for $150 !!!

*THE HYDROGEN DOG AND THE COBALT CAT

The Hydrogen dog and the Cobalt cat,
side by side in the armory sat.
Nobody thought about fusion or fission.
Everyone spoke of their peace time mission,
till somebody came and opened the door.
There they were, in a neutron fog.
The Codrogen Cat And the Hybalt dog;
they mushroomed up with a terrible roar,
and nobody never was there no more.*