Margin of Error - March 15 2025

 

Margin of Error

March 15 2025

I'm the constant

you the variable.

My intervals are measured,

yours irregular

exponential

outside the margin of error.

My even temper

to your oddly changing moods.

Because where I’m binary

you shift

between octal

decimal

exotic.

If our system were Cartesian

you’d be the y

and I the x.

Your ordinate

to my abscissa,

you dependent

while I’m fixed.

And where my numbers are whole

yours are irrational,

complex,

even transcendental.

So how likely is it

we'd ever get together

let alone multiply?

How likely

we wouldn’t miscarry?

How likely

our imaginary numbers

would look anything like us?

In mathematics

equations balance out;

great minds

will spend their lives pondering

the ones that don’t.

While mine, which is average at best

has yet to solve you

so probably won’t.

But perhaps balance is overrated.

While a balanced top

spins on its centre

and a gymnast doesn’t fall,

it’s the unpredictable

that keeps life interesting.

The top that topples

and ends up who knows where,

the oohs and ahhs

watching the acrobat

catch herself midair.