Fun Time

An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician are driving through the high country in Scotland. Atop a hill, they see a black sheep. The engineer says: "All sheep are black!" The physicist says: "No, no, some sheep are black." The mathematician: "At least one sheep is black on at least one side."

I first read this joke in Jayant Naralikar's influential Aakashashi Jadale Nate. In the nine years that followed, I came to appreciate a few more math-jokes (but only a few). But today yours truly got lucky. Stumbled upon a treasure trove. Mathoverflow has a thread running on the same, and it's overflowing with some seriously good stuff! Do not miss! Of course I did not understand everything, but it's worth it. Here are some of my favorites, picked from the thread, and the links linked (?) from there.

A physicist, an engineer, and a statistician were out game hunting. The engineer spied a bear in the distance, so they got a little closer. "Let me take the first shot!" said the engineer, who missed the bear by three metres to the left. "You're incompetent! Let me try" insisted the physicist, who then proceeded to miss by three metres to the right. "Ooh, we got him!!" said the statistician.

A mathematician organizes a raffle in which the prize is an infinite amount of money paid over an infinite amount of time. Of course, with the promise of such a prize, his tickets sell like hot cake.When the winning ticket is drawn, and the jubilant winner comes to claim his prize, the mathematician explains the mode of payment: "1 dollar now, 1/2 dollar next week, 1/3 dollar the week after that..."

OK, time for a quick quiz..

Q: What is a topologist?
A: Someone who cannot distinguish between a doughnut and a coffee cup.

Q: Why didn’t Newton discover Group Theory?
A: Because he wasn’t Abel.

Q: What’s a polar bear?
A: A rectangular bear after a coordinate transform.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: Fermat: It did not fit on the margin on this side.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip?
A: To get to the same side.

OK, enough fun. Time for some serious math now.

Theorem. 3 = 4.
Proof. Suppose
a + b = c .
This can also be written as:
4a − 3a + 4b − 3b = 4c − 3c .
After reorganizing:
4a + 4b − 4c = 3a + 3b − 3c .
Take the constants out of the brackets:
4(a + b − c) = 3(a + b − c) .
Remove the same term left and right:
4 = 3. (Mwuhahaha)

And before leaving, I give you this tongue in cheek, but still telling quote.

An engineer thinks that his equations are an approximation to reality. A physicist thinks reality is an approximation to his equations. A mathematician doesn’t care.

Enjoy!


P.S. One more that I just could not resist.
Q: Why do mathematicians often confuse Christmas and Halloween?
A: Because Oct 31 = Dec 25.