# You're too much of a mathematician if

You're too much a mathematician if ...

Hi all,

I thought it would be funny to open a thread like this.
So feel free to post!

You're too much of a mathematician if ...

... if you think that "epsilon < 0" is funny.

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IF you think? It is funny.

omg I didn't understand it, thank God..!!

...if you think that the x-component of the vector formed by your instructors mustache is at its largest value at $$\cos \theta = 1$$

... if you think the reason the downtown area is called the center is because everyone commutes there.

.. you can (finally) tell a doughnut from a coffee mug.

.. you can (finally) tell a doughnut from a coffee mug.
Wouldn't you be a normal person if you can do that?

omg I didn't understand it, thank God..!!
lol, i didn't understand the first one either

but the others are pretty funny so far

Gokul43201
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
Wouldn't you be a normal person if you can do that?
The "finally" is important.

...if you deny that there can be such a thing as "too much of a mathematician"... and subsequently disappear in a puff of logic.

morphism
Homework Helper
Maybe it should've been:

...if you can't tell a doughnut from a coffee mug.

...if you use the word "trivial" or "evident" more than once a day

Lisa!
Gold Member
...if you think .999999999=1:tongue2:

<runs and hides>

...if you think .999999999=1:tongue2:

<runs and hides>
You see, now that would be an engineer/physicist.

I presume you meant 0.9999999... = 1.

Lisa!
Gold Member
You see, now that would be an engineer/physicist.

I presume you meant 0.9999999... = 1.
Oops...no , now thats a real mathematician considring this 1:

You are a mathematician if you say 'A', write 'B' but mean 'C'

If you begin a day to day argument: " For all x such that..."

Oops...no , now thats a real mathematician considring this 1:

You are a mathematician if you say 'A', write 'B' but mean 'C'
that one is good

morphism
Homework Helper
...if you use the word "trivial" or "evident" more than once a day
I would add "there exists" to that list!

My favorite one so far is jimmysnyder's.

Oops...no , now thats a real mathematician considring this 1:

You are a mathematician if you say 'A', write 'B' but mean 'C'
The professors dilemma: He says 'A', he writes 'B', he means 'C', but it should really be 'D'.

Comes from Polya's How to Solve It

Hurkyl
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
...if you use the word "trivial" or "evident" more than once a day
I can't remember it off hand, but there is at least one mathematical term that I use in everyday conversation, because there isn't an 'ordinary' English word that carries precisely the meaning I intend.

Lisa!
Gold Member
The professors dilemma: He says 'A', he writes 'B', he means 'C', but it should really be 'D'.

Comes from Polya's How to Solve It
:rofl:
Thanks!

I can't remember it off hand, but there is at least one mathematical term that I use in everyday conversation, because there isn't an 'ordinary' English word that carries precisely the meaning I intend.
Great! You're a real mathematician

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mathwonk
Homework Helper
libelous contumely! all of it. and i can prove it.

When you and your friends sit around trying to think about whether there are any foods whose boundary is a surface of genus two.

cristo
Staff Emeritus
I can't remember it off hand, but there is at least one mathematical term that I use in everyday conversation, because there isn't an 'ordinary' English word that carries precisely the meaning I intend.
I use the word "clearly" quite often-- a word I rarely used before studying maths!

If you begin a day to day argument: " For all x such that..."
:rofl: no! save me! It's not just in arguments either; non-mathematical language is just so clunky when one is trying to be precise. I mean, what's the english equivalent of (A+B+C)-(A+B)=(A+C)-(A)=C? The only thing I could come up with was "B cancels"

When you begin to define everyone you know in terms of matrices representing their characteristics.