Tom Lehrer: Author Lyric Sheets
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Public-domain lyrics

Relativity

Tom Lehrer

Newton, Einstein and a fourth dimension share a comic introduction to relativity.

Tom Lehrer: Author Lyric Sheets Text 13 Undated text
Public domainSciencePhysicsSatireCuriousWry
Complete public-domain lyrics

The main lyric moves from Newtonian expectations to length contraction and an ominous atomic-age ending. Its musical setting is Personality by James Van Heusen from The Road to Utopia. This edition presents the complete twenty-one-line main song. The expressly optional opening verse and the separately printed Physical Revue dialogue are excluded, not silently blended into the lyric. The distorted rhyme w-e-o-ry remains as printed.

Verse 1

When Isaac Newton wrote

The laws that we all quote,

It's now extremely apparent that he

Neglected to consider

Relativity.

Verse 2

What focused our attention

On the fourth dimension?

We'd been doing so well with just three.

'Twas Mister Einstein's brain child,

Relativity.

Verse 3

And who would think

And who'd forecast

That bodies shrink

When they go fast?

It makes old Isaac's theory

Look w-e-o-ry.

Verse 4

And so if you are near

When atom bombs appear,

And you're reduced to a pile of debris,

You'll know it's largely due to

Relativity.

Credits

Written by Tom Lehrer

Words by Tom Lehrer, released into the public domain by the author. This is the author-published text edition, not a transcription of a particular performance.

Source & text edition

Author-published lyric sheet · original English words

Tom Lehrer's November 26, 2022 declaration relinquishes copyright in lyrics he wrote. It does not grant rights to third-party music, photographs or album artwork. This edition uses only his words.

Read the author’s lyric sheet (PDF)

View copyright evidence · Author’s public-domain declaration

Retrieved 2026-09-08. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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