The two maths jokes that I can remember from my undergrad days are: "What's purple and commutes?" "An abelian grape" "What's yellow and equivalent to the axiom of choice?" "Zorn's Lemon" Evidently there's something inherently funny about group theory.
The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
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Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.xkcd.com/221/
Also: http://dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25
Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#43Mathematicians can have a focus (and corresponding lack of real-world awareness) that puts even us engineers to shame. Once as an undergrad I was taking a class in the math building, and there was a professor blocking the door because he was reading a flyer taped to it about an upcoming symposium or something. I coughed a little to indicate I was there, and he turned, acknowledged my presence, and then went right bac…
There's the classic/apocryphal story as well of the student who stops a math professor in the hallway and asks a complicated question. Professor gives a long, thorough answer, and the student becomes enlightened. Just as the student is about to leave, the professor asks "Wait, which way did I come from?" Student points out "That way", and the professor goes "Great, then I've had lunch."
Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#44Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#45tl;dr: They were down there talking about math one afternoon and the owner of the deli was trying to take the order from one of them and he was a little bit too preoccupied with mathematics to fully engage in the sandwich ordering process.
Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#46The two maths jokes that I can remember from my undergrad days are: "What's purple and commutes?" "An abelian grape" "What's yellow and equivalent to the axiom of choice?" "Zorn's Lemon" Evidently there's something inherently funny about group theory.
Many more jokes of varies quality: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/1083/do-good-math-jokes-e...
Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#47Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#48The two maths jokes that I can remember from my undergrad days are: "What's purple and commutes?" "An abelian grape" "What's yellow and equivalent to the axiom of choice?" "Zorn's Lemon" Evidently there's something inherently funny about group theory.
"What's yellow, normed, and complete?" "A Bananach space."
Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#49I love math but I find this whole article and the associated jokes pretty contentless and somewhat boring.
Re: The story behind the Connecticut deli math sign
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Let ε Or a similar but more blatant telling of the original joke would be "Let ℵ₀ be a group."
"Let ε<0." There goes the neighborhood!
I teach basic Maths to adults in the UK, so I tend to use these old faves...
"What did the zero say to the eight?"
"Nice belt"
(even my sister has heard that one)
"Why does noone talk to circles?"
"There's no point"
Thankyou and goodnight