Mathematical joke
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A mathematical joke is a form of professional humor which relies on aspects of mathematics or a stereotype of mathematicians to derive humor. The humor may come from a pun or double meaning of a mathematical term, or on a non-mathematician's misunderstanding of a mathematical concept. Such jokes are frequently inaccessible to those without a mathematical bent.
Pun-based jokes
Person 1: What's the integral of 1/cabin?
Person 2: A log cabin.
Person 1: No, a houseboat - you forgot to add the C!
The first part of this joke relies on the fact that the primitive (formed during integration) of the function 1/x is log(x). The second part is then based on the fact that when taking an indefinite integral it is necessary to include a constant of integration, usually denoted as C - something which many calculus students forget. Thus, the integral of 1/cabin is "log(cabin) + C", or "A log cabin plus the sea", ie. "A houseboat".
Some of these jokes rely on the fact that many mathematical terms have non-mathematical meanings, such as the one-liner "Life is complex: it has both real and imaginary components."
'Mathematical pun' based jokes
There are only 10 types of people in the world -- those who understand binary, and those who don't
This joke relies on the fact that mathematical expressions, just as expressions in natural languages, may have multiple meanings. When multiple meanings are available, puns are possible. In this case a pun is made using the expression 10. For non-mathematicians 10 almost always refers to the number ten. However, in binary, the expression 10 means the number two. Thus the joke says that there are only two kinds of people, those who understand binary, and those who don't. However, those who do not understand binary will certainly not get the joke. It must be noted this joke is only feasible in written form; when speaking a binary number aloud, most would phrase "10" as "One Zero" rather than "Ten". Telling a joke beginning with "There are only One Zero types of people in the world" would give away the joke immediately, or perhaps get the joke teller shouted down immediately.
Another pun using different radices, sometimes attributed to computer scientists, asks "Why do mathematicians think Halloween and Christmas are the same? Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec."
Most everyone knows the trite line: "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "To get to the other side". A mathematical variation follows as: "Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip?" "To get to the other ... er ...". This joke relies on the fact that since the Möbius Strip is a surface with only one side, anyone trying to give the typical answer will realise its impossibility. The answer is sometimes also given as "To get to the same side", with the same rationale.
Mathematical reasoning
A similar set of jokes applies mathematical reasoning to situations where it is not entirely valid. Many of these are based on a combination of well-known quotes and basic logical constructs such as syllogisms:
Examples:
- Premise I: Power corrupts.
- Premise II: Knowledge is power.
- Conclusion: Therefore, knowledge corrupts.
- Premise I: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
- Premise II: "Imitation is suicide." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Conclusion: "Therefore, suicide is the sincerest form of flattery."
There are also a number of joke proofs, such as the proof that "Girls are absolutely evil":
- Girls require time and money: [girls = time \cdot money\,]
- "Time is money": [time = money\,]
- So girls are money squared: [girls = money^2\,]
- "Money is the root of all evil": [money = \sqrt]
- So girls are absolutely evil: [girls = \left (\sqrt \right )^2 = |evil|]
Mathematicians
Some jokes are based on stereotypes of mathematicians tending to think in complicated, abstract terms, causing them to lose touch with the "real world".
Many of these jokes compare mathematicians to other professions, typically physicists, engineers, or the "soft" sciences in a form similar to those which begin "An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman ..." or the like. The joke generally shows the other scientist doing something practical, while the mathematician does something less useful such as making the necessary calculation but not performing the implied action.
Examples:
- A mathematician and his best friend, an engineer, attend a public lecture on geometry in thirteen-dimensional space. "How did you like it?" the mathematician wants to know after the talk. "My head's spinning", the engineer confesses. "How can you develop any intuition for thirteen-dimensional space?" "Well, it's not even difficult. All I do is visualize the situation in arbitrary N-dimensional space and then set N = 13."
- A mathematician, a biologist and a physicist are sitting in a street café watching people going in and coming out of the house on the other side of the street. First they see two people going into the house. Time passes. After a while they notice three persons coming out of the house. The physicist says, "The measurement wasn't accurate." The biologist says, "They have reproduced." The mathematician says, "If now exactly one person enters the house then it will be empty again."
- A sociologist, a physicist and a mathematician are each locked in a prison cell and given a supply of canned food, but no can opener. After thirty days, the cells are unlocked. The sociologist's cell has dents in the walls, and smashed cans and food everywhere. He threw the cans at the walls randomly until they burst open, and salvaged enough food to survive. The physicist's cell wall is covered in calculations, and one corner is heavily damaged. He calculated the optimum way to throw the can at the wall to make it burst open reliably (to within a reasonable margin of error), and he too survived. The mathematician's cell wall is likewise covered in calculations, but there are no dents in the walls. In fact, inside the cell sit the pile of cans, unopened, and the corpse of the mathematician. He was able to derive a nonconstructive proof that showed there was a way to throw the can of food at the wall, but could not find the solution.
Mathematicians are also averse to making sweeping generalisations from a small amount of data, preferring instead to state only that which can be logically deduced from the given information - even if some form of generalisation seems plausible:
- A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were traveling through Scotland when they saw a black sheep through the window of the train. "Aha," says the engineer, "I see that Scottish sheep are black."
- "Hmm," says the physicist, "you mean that some Scottish sheep are black."
- "No," says the mathematician, "all we know is that there is at least one sheep in Scotland, at least one side of which looks black!"
Non-mathematicians
The next category of jokes is those that exploit common misunderstandings of mathematics, or the expectation that most people have only a basic mathematical education, if any.
Examples:
- A visitor to the Royal Tyrell Museum was admiring a Tyrannosaurus fossil, and asked a nearby museum employee how old it was.
- "That skeleton's sixty-five million and three years, two months and eighteen days old," the employee replied.
- "How can you know it that well?"
- "Well, when I started working here, I asked a scientist the exact same question, and he said it was sixty-five million years old - and that was three years, two months and eighteen days ago."
- Two mathematicians are in a bar. The first one says to the second that the average person knows very little about basic math. The second one disagrees, and claims that most people can cope with a reasonable amount of math. The first mathematician goes off to the washroom, and in his absence the second calls over the waitress. He tells her that in a few minutes, after his friend has returned, he will call her over and ask her a question; all she has to do is answer, "One third x cubed." She agrees, and goes off mumbling to herself. The first guy returns and the second proposes a bet to prove his point. He says he will ask the blonde waitress an integral, and the first laughingly agrees. The second man calls over the waitress and asks, "What is the integral of x squared?" The waitress says, "One third x cubed." Then, while walking away, she turns back and says, "Plus a constant!"
Non-mathematical mathematical jokes
One final form of mathematical humor comes from using mathematical tools (both abstract symbols and physical objects such as calculators) to form words and phrases, often of a crude nature. These constructions are generally devoid of any "real" mathematics, besides some basic arithmetic. One such example is calculator spelling, words and phrases formed by entering a number and turning the calculator upside down. Due to their crudeness and relative simplicity (requiring only basic calculator skills to achieve), they are usually spread by schoolchildren. Often the words are accompanied by stories involving numbers that lead to the final "solution".
Example:
- Christina Aguilera's breasts weigh 69 pounds (enter 69 into calculator), which is too, too, too much (enter 222, making 69222). So she went to 5th Street (enter 5, making 692225) to see her #1 doctor (enter 1, making 6922251) Dr. X (push the multiply button). After 8 surgeries (enter 8 then equals, giving 55378008) she was (turn the calculator upside down to reveal the calculator word) BOOBLESS.
Instead of numbers on a calculator, mathematical notation may be used to form the phrases.
Examples:
- [\int e^x = f\left (u\right )^n]
- [b_4i\sqrt\frac]
See also
External links
- [Mathematical Humor -- From Mathworld]
- [A Sampling of Mathematical Folk Humor]
- [A sly and rude pickup line]
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