iMechanica - Jokes for serious people - Comments

LAB/Office Whiteboard

Fattaneh Morshedsolouk — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:39:36 -0500

from http://www.phdcomics.com

More tongue in cheek humor

MichelleLOyen — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:06:57 -0400

from http://graphjam.com/

a funny but useful graph ...

Andrew Norris — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:57:46 -0500

Nice one! And here is a great graphic that I love to show people

Use it in your talk to show the perils of correlating data!

Presentation skills joke

MichelleLOyen — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:40:20 -0500

Hopefully most iMech'ers wouldn't resort to this!

(from xkcd )

real life is sometimes funniest

Andrew Norris — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:56:07 -0500

There is a funny story about the theoretical physicist and mathematician Theodor Kaluza, of Kaluza-Klein fame. It is usually argued that any new theory must be confirmed by experiment. But some theoreticians have the opposite opinion - that experiments are meaningless unless backed up by good theory. Kaluza was definitely in the second camp. He was also a non-swimmer, but in order to prove his point about the power of theoretical knowledge, he claimed that he could learn to swim from reading a book. So in his thirties he read up on swimming, and one day without any lessons, he jumped in the deep end and sure enough started swimming.

I thought the story so hilarious that I had to check it out - and it is true . I came across the Kaluza anecdote in the book "Faster than the speed of light" (2003) written by a young theoretical physicist - Joao Magueijo - who proposed an alternative theory to the "accepted" model of cosmology. The book is about his struggles to have his theory gain acceptance in the theoretical physics community. Along the way he offers many anecdotes and sharp comments on scientific research. A great read.

Sidney Harris Miracle Step!

Dhruv Bhate — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:44:58 -0500

Doesn't this seem to happen all the time?

More at http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com

The Imposter

David M. Cooper — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:02:57 -0500

I call this function "The Imposter". It is a close fit to y=sin(x), save for the derivative at y=0. Do not be fooled.

Nachiket, thanks for the heads up on the four-dimensional dog. I'm sure it has eaten homework in just about every neighborhood.

Some more

Arun Prakash — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:52:48 -0500

A couple more, which are "common" knowledge in the scientific world

1. Theory is you know something and it does not work. In practice something works and you don't know why. Programming combines both theory and practice, something doesn't work and you don't know why.

2. Simulation is something and except you as the simulator, nobody else believes. Experiment is something that except you everyone else believes.

some more jokes

Nachiket Gokhale — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:38:01 -0500

A long time ago, I came across this set of jokes of mathematics. Enjoy.

Jokes for serious people

Zhigang Suo — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:34:43 -0500

This semester I'm teaching an undergraduate course on functions of a complex variable. A student has just sent me a message:

Q: Why did the mathematician name his dog "Cauchy"?
A: Because the dog left a residue at every pole.

* * * *

I received an email several weeks ago with the following quote:

Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.
- Dr AR Dykes, British Institution of Structural Engineers, 1976.

* * * *

The following quote was attributed to Norman Augustine:

Early birds get the worms. Early worms...get eaten.

* * * *

There must be many good jokes and quotes for serious people. Let us hear from you if you recall any.