Tom Rocks Maths intern Fred Tyrrell sings a mathematical version of the song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler. Full lyrics on screen and below.

Integrate…
Every now and then I get a little bit sad because my maths all comes out wrong.
Integrate…
Every now and then I get a little bit tired of integrals for so many years.
Integrate…
Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the function can’t be solved for y.
Integrate…
Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and I forget to add on a pi.

Substitute function,
every now and then that doesn’t work.
Use the trig identities
every now and then that doesn’t work.

And I need another way,
and I need it more than ever.
And I cry into the night,
when they’re multiplied together.
And I just can’t seem to do this right,
’cause it just comes out wrong.
Together these two terms are causing all of my plight.
This problem is a shadow on me all of the time.

I don’t know what to do should I integrate by parts?
But picking u and v I don’t know where to start…

I need to integrate,
I’m gonna see this problem through,
I’m gonna see this problem through.

Once upon a time I thought maths was so dumb,
but now I see that it takes some smarts.
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb…
There’s nothing left to do, so I integrate by parts.

Once upon a time there was light in my life,
but now I integrate in the dark.
One thing left to do so I integrate by parts.
I integrate by parts.

How to do integrals?
Every now and then I go with parts.
How to do integrals?
Every now and then I go with parts.

And I hope I get it right, and I hope I get the answer.
And if I only use my mind,
I can do two functions together.
But when substitution doesn’t work,
and trig makes it worse.
Together these two functions make it seem too hard,
but integrate by parts as your trump card.
As your trump card.

I don’t know what to do so I’ll integrate by parts,
u dv and v du make math look like art.
I really needed to know when the integral is just too hard,
the integral is just too hard.

Once upon a time there was light in my life but now I integrate in the dark.
Nothing left to do so I integrate by parts.
I integrate by parts.

Integrate… by… parts…
Integrate… by… parts…
Integrate by parts.