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Ask HN: Any good math jokes?

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Re: Ask HN: Any good math jokes?

#71
post #8

Surprised this isn't already here, pretty popular at my college: I wish I was your derivative, so I could lie tangent to your curves.

That one is so bad, because it doesn't work. Presumably the derivative is used to calculate a tangent line. However, a tangent line touches the curve only at one point, unless the curve is totally flat. Either way, this is not what you want. You want fuckin' Taylor series approximations. (They won't work on curves that aren't smooth, but that's all right, because those are the curves you want to touch anyway.)

Aww yeah.

Re: Ask HN: Any good math jokes?

#75
Not sure if that can fit on the t-shirt, but here are couple of ideas

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2174/2268237733_cda4a1dbb3.jp...

http://geektech.geektech.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2...

(these are 'captchas' that require you to solve a problem)

Also, liked these (unrelated to maths):

http://geektechnica.com/2010/06/10-craziest-captchas-out-the...

Re: Ask HN: Any good math jokes?

#77
A friend of mine once claimed that a specific celebrity couple had their ages as 88 years and 44 years respectively. All others said that they knew the age difference was big for this couple, but it couldn't be that big! Some more probing and my friend blurted "I remember exactly that when they got married, they were 44 and 22 respectively".

Re: Ask HN: Any good math jokes?

#79
post #29

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says "You're all idiots", and pours two beers. more: http://www.metafilter.com/76377/Two-mathematicians-walk-into...

So all but one have to share a glass? Seems unpractical.

Re: Ask HN: Any good math jokes?

#80
One for HN:

Q: Why did the two vectors start an internet-based company?

A: Because they thought they had a good dot product.

One for a t-shirt (stolen off the Internet):

Math problems? Call 1-800-[(10x)(13i)^2]-[sin(xy)/2.362x].

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