Bad Math Jokes

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Discussion Overview

The thread revolves around sharing and discussing bad math jokes, with participants contributing various humorous anecdotes, puns, and references to mathematical concepts and figures. The scope includes light-hearted jokes, memes, and playful interactions related to mathematics and its terminology.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants share jokes, such as the sailor knot joke and various puns related to mathematics and knot theory.
  • Others reference mathematical concepts like Kruskal's tree theorem and the busy beaver function in a humorous context.
  • There are jokes involving famous figures in mathematics, such as Pythagoras, and playful takes on mathematical expressions.
  • Some participants engage in discussions about the humor in probability problems and the implications of certain mathematical scenarios.
  • Several jokes reference popular culture, including Doctor Who, and the humor derived from misunderstandings or wordplay.
  • Participants also mention historical comedic references, such as Abbott and Costello, and their relevance to math humor.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally share a light-hearted approach to the topic, contributing jokes and humorous observations. However, there is no consensus on which jokes are the best or most effective, and the humor is subjective, leading to a variety of interpretations and responses.

Contextual Notes

Some jokes rely on specific mathematical knowledge or cultural references that may not be universally understood, which could limit their accessibility to all participants.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those who enjoy mathematics, humor, and wordplay, as well as fans of popular culture references related to math.

  • #211
In fact, it turns out that the set of all infinities [having different cardinalities] is an infinite set. But until just recently we didn't know the cardinality of the set of all infinities. Someone finally came up with a proof that it is the one we all know and love - countable infinity.
 
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  • #212
Ivan Seeking said:
In fact, it turns out that the set of all infinities [having different cardinalities] is an infinite set.
Are you sure? Sounds like a proper class to me. As stackexchange confirms.
 
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  • #213
jbriggs444 said:
Are you sure? Sounds like a proper class to me. As stackexchange confirms.
Hmmm, that is what I read in something respectable [not sure exactly what now but probably Scientific American]. Maybe the proof was later found to be flawed. I thought it was a done deal.
 
  • #214
loving women ia.png

loving women ib.png
 
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  • #215
Forget all those women, I am still trying to understand how to interpolate, or read a log scale that changes by a factor of 100 per cycle. 1, 4, 9, 16 ... 100.
 
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  • #216
Baluncore said:
Forget all those women, I am still trying to understand how to interpolate, or read a log scale that changes by a factor of 100 per cycle. 1, 4, 9, 16 ... 100.
I knew someone would catch that...
 
  • #217
DaveC426913 said:
There was a basketball player who took a lot of grief when he made the following comment [approximately]: I've slept with hundreds of women, and I loved them all! I remember snickering as well.

After ten years of being single again, now I understand!
 
  • #218
Baluncore said:
Forget all those women, I am still trying to understand how to interpolate, or read a log scale that changes by a factor of 100 per cycle. 1, 4, 9, 16 ... 100.
If I'm not mistaken, since there are 9 lines per decade, and each decade increases by 100, the number corresponding to each line is 100^{\frac{1}{9}} \approx 1.668101 multiplied by the previous line's corresponding number.

1.000000
1.668101
2.782559
4.641589
7.742637
12.91550
21.54435
35.93814
59.94843

100.0000
166.8101
278.2559
464.1589
774.2637
1291.550
2154.435
3593.814
5994.843

and so on.

(Edit: Nevermind. This would be the case if the lines on the chart were equally space. But they're not.)
 
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  • #219
collinsmark said:
If I'm not mistaken, since there are 9 lines per decade, and each decade increases by 100, the number corresponding to each line is 100^{\frac{1}{9}} \approx 1.668101 multiplied by the previous line's corresponding number.

1.000000
1.668101
....
That not how log scales work.

The axis numbers still increase arithmetically within each "decade", in this case by an increment of ##\frac{100-1}{10-1} = 11##, so

1, 12, 23, 34, 45, 56, 67, 78, 89, 100.
 
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  • #220
I considered whether it would be better to use the log grid correctly, but I decided it would have made it less readable.

Turns out, the only readers who are into this kind of humour are also very particular about getting the math correct.

Someone else wondered why - since it's a linear function - it was rendered as logarthymic at all.
 
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  • #221
pinball1970 said:
I thought he was going to rescue everyone, that's no fun though!
Thought the objective was to get everyone killed in the least amount of effort :cool:
 
  • #222
to more understandable math jokes............

A king and his castle is surrounded by 2 armies, and it is a stalemate, as the kings army is just as large as the other two. Still being seiged and all that is not pleasant.
His squire, an ingenious fellow, says that he will dual with the other squires for dominance.
The other two kings, and two squires snicker, as they see conquest. It is now definitely two against one.
The game is afoot.
The king's squire gets a pot, mixes oil and a goat's intestines, and a bunch of other stuff, cooks it over a raging flame to make a thick soup oozing over the top.
He flings a rope over a tree branch and hoists the pot in the air.

The other two armies seeing that are aghast.
They have no chance of winning the challenge. They pack up and retreat to their lands.

After all.
A squire of the high pot'n'ooze is equal the sum of the other two squires.

Ha ha - from a sci fi space movie, from a guy joking just before they are attacked.
 
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  • #223
howling wolf small.jpg
 
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  • #224
256bits said:
to more understandable math jokes............
Pythagoras would be proud :D
 
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  • #225
Light brown/yellow dog:
"So, pie(sic) is an infinite number, and its expansion contains copies of every book ever written? "
Dark dog:
Screenshot_20230506_194800_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
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  • #226
At the Math lounge:
" They're giving away free groups!!"
 
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  • #227
Some group theorist had a lecture where he wrote down a new group and named it after an audience member: TED talk, at 16:30.
"That's your new symmetrical object, you are now immortal."

The speaker had no idea who she was. Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics.
 
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  • #228
Haven't read yet any ' yo mamma' jokes you can always make up: Yo momma so ugly, she does not retract to a CW-Complex through a Simplicial Map.
 
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  • #229
Never ask a mathematician to rate something. They think 6 is perfect.
 
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  • #230
jack action said:
Since the coin is making the gap in the wrench smaller than 7/16 shouldn't it be subtraction instead of addition?
 
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  • #232
mfb said:
Never ask a mathematician to rate something. They think 6 is perfect.
that's good :D

perfect numbers
 
  • #233
convert-miles-to-km.jpg
 
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  • #234
From Facebook:

1685458481415.png
 
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  • #235
Screenshot 2023-05-31 at 8.36.13 AM.png
 
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  • #236
Screenshot 2023-06-06 at 9.57.23 AM.png
 
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  • #237
Another two digits and they could have rounded it off with the zero.
 
  • #238
3-times-4.jpg
 
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  • #239
mfb said:
Never ask a mathematician to rate something. They think 6 is perfect.
Always get a Sr. Engineer to tell the rookies what is perfection. ( Release it at 90% of the "nice to haves" in 50% of the time)

Good specs and good design that meet spec, even if it has flaws that could be done better. That's a 10. If not revise the spec.

Tweaks come with Revisions under the guise of "Cost Reductions" Rated a 10 Rev A

But as an engineer, I never knew 6 was perfect. Imagine all the time I wasted trying to be 10.

Oddly enuf, all the consecutive perfect number divisors including itself follow Mr. Fibbonachi's sequence.
 
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  • #240
 
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