A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
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A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
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Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#2A wonderful and amusing anecdote that shows how both types differ. This comes from "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers," a book about the mathematician Paul Erdős.
Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#3This is a bit related:
xkcd: Certainty [1]
Edit: Here’s the text transcript:
> [A door seen from a hallway, with "Teachers' Lounge" on the glass, next to the door is a sign reading "Award." Inside the door are two teachers talking.]
> Megan: My students drew me into another political argument.
> Cueball: Eh; it happens.
> Megan: Lately, political debates bother me. They just show how good smart people are at rationalizing.
> [The two teachers continue talking. A third one is seen reading a book on a sofa.]
> Megan: The world is so complicated - the more I learn, the less clear anything gets. There are too many ideas and arguments to pick and choose from. How can I trust myself to know the truth about anything? And if everything I know is so shaky, what on Earth am I doing teaching?
> Cueball: I guess you just do your best. No one can impart perfect universal truths to their students.
> Miss Lenhart: ahem
> Cueball: ...Except math teachers.
> Miss Lenhart: Thank you.
Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#4> A physicist and a mathematician are flying cross-country together. Each is keeping a diary of the trip. They fly over a white horse in Iowa. The physicist writes, 'There is a white horse in Iowa.' The mathematician writes, 'There exists, somewhere in the Midwest, a horse, white on top.
Reminds me of a quote from a favorite textbook [1] of mine:
> In mathematics, an argument must be airtight; that is, convincing in an absolute sense. In everyday life ... the standard of proof is lower ... evidence plays no role in a mathematical proof. A mathematician demands proof beyond _any_ doubt.
It's interesting how in the sciences, we worship at the altar of the almighty Evidence. However, in math, not even evidence is good enough.
[1] p. 17, _Introduction to the theory of computation, third edition, by Michael Sipser
Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#5Seems there are many variations on this joke.
The one I know:
An astronomer, a physicist and a mathematician go for a walk in the countryside. They spy a black sheep in the distance.
The astronomer immediately proclaims, "All sheep are black!"
The physicist thinks for a moment and suggests, "Some sheep are black."
The mathematician ponders awhile and says, "There exists a sheep such that at minimum one of its sides is black."
Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#6Seems there are many variations on this joke. The one I know: An astronomer, a physicist and a mathematician go for a walk in the countryside. They spy a black sheep in the distance. The astronomer immediately proclaims, "All sheep are black!" The physicist thinks for a moment and suggests, "Some sheep are black." The mathematician ponders awhile and says, "There exists a sheep such that at minimum one of its sides i…
There is the joke where scientists lock an engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician each in a room with a bed and a can of soup. In the morning they open the rooms one by one.
In the first room the engineer is asleep and there is mangled open can of soup on the floor. They wake him up and ask about the soup can. And he says, I got hungry so I smashed the soup can against floor to open it.
Next room the physicist was sleep and the soup can open on the floor with the top cleanly removed. And equations scribbled on every wall. When the wake him up and ask about the soup can he proudly says, I got hungry so I figured out exactly where to hit the can so the top would fly off.
Upon opening the last room they find a bleary eyed mathematician holding the soup can saying 'assume the can is open'
Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#7I remember a similar joke from a book some years ago from the school:
An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician are on a train crossing an unknown country. Suddenly, the engineer leaning out of the window says: "in this country the sheep are black!"; the physicist corrects: "in this region of the country, some sheep are black"; the mathematician limits himself saying: "at least from one of their sides."
Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#8If they knew the labels were switched, they know which one held caffeinated coffee...even the physicist is too sophisticated...
Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#9If they knew the labels were switched, they know which one held caffeinated coffee...even the physicist is too sophisticated...
that's only if it was switched an odd number of times. It could totally have been one of those shell game things where it's switched a couple dozen times, and no one knows whether it was even or odd.
Re: A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists
#10Physics is mathematics with the constraint of reality.
Engineering is physics with the constraint of money.