Why are Math Professors so Quirky?

[Jin314159]

I've never met a "normal" math professor before. They're all wierdos. Can anyone tell me why?

[humanino]

Because Math :
1 : is designed for crazy people;
2 : turns regular persons into weirdos.

Both statements hold. It makes it hopeless to find a regular human being occupied to teach math :tongue2:

No, seriously. Math is another reality much more secure than truth around us in the world. Math is more real than physics for instance, because only in math does one deals with well-defined concepts : I know what a cirlce is, although I never met one (math). I have no idea what a force is, although I experience some everyday (physics). This makes math reachers absorbed by everyday abstract concepts they deal with, and results in a form of "I don't care about this random show happening out of my head, full of humans acting in unpredictible ways, because I have safe conceptual friends which hardly surprise me, except for good reasons".

When I was a kid, I wanted to do math. When I was a teenager, I saved my soul a went for physics. Almost saved :biggrin:

[Gza]

It's funny, I find most physics majors at my school to be total stoners. Kinda goes against the typical steriotype.

[quasar987]

What has surprised me is how they are all so UGLY and AWFULLY dressed.

ex: these will be my math teachers for the next 3 years: http://www.dms.umontreal.ca/Personnel.html

[Dimitri Terryn]

It's funny, I find most physics majors at my school to be total stoners. Kinda goes against the typical steriotype.

I have similar experiences. Last year, out of 13 physics first-years, 11 were at least semi-regular stoners.

Mind you, only 5 made it through. Although I've been told this is a bit above average :eek:

[cragwolf]

What has surprised me is how they are all so UGLY and AWFULLY dressed.

ex: these will be my math teachers for the next 3 years: http://www.dms.umontreal.ca/Personnel.html

Here's the direct link to the photos:

http://www.dms.umontreal.ca/~belanger/

Firstly, nearly all of them are middle-aged. What you will discover as you age is that you tend to lose your physical attractiveness. Secondly, these teachers are extremely lucky they work in a job which does not require them to sell their physical appearance. So they tend to dress for comfort and not for others. Thirdly, teachers and professors tend to be passionate about their careers, and have little time and patience for superficial things like appearance and fashion. Fourthly, I'm pretty sure Daniel Dufresne and Charles Dugas would flutter a few college girl's hearts, while I find Marlène Frigon to be quite attractive.

[quasar987]

She has nice lips.

I admit that Dufresne is a "statistical abheration". We will chose to ignore him to save the linearity of the experiement. :smile:

[gravenewworld]

Normal people don't choose to get a P.h.D in mathematics.

[Chrono]

How many of your professors have greast senses of humor? All of mine do. No matter how weird they are, I can always talk to them about anything. And, not to mention, they always make class quite entertaining.