The difference is subtle

[struggle4progress]

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Suddenly I understand Yoism!!!

[struggle4progress]

2. !

[DreamGypsy]

3. This reminds me of a study of the difference between physicists and mathematicians...

A noted sociologist wanted to determine the difference between physicists and mathematicians, so he asked two of his colleagues of the respective disciplines at the University to participate in a series of experiments. Here are the results:

Experiment I.

Physicist: Subject enters a classroom and observes the instructions written on the blackboard: Boil water. Subject scans the room and notices a pan of water in the left front corner of the room and an electric hotplate in the front-middle of the room. Subject walks to the left corner and picks up pan, moves to the center of the room, places pan on hotplate, turns on hot plate, and waits for the water to boil. Subject turns off hotplate and exits room.

Mathemetician: Subject enters a classroom and observes the instructions written on the blackboard: Boil water. Subject scans the room and notices a pan of water in the left front corner of the room and an electric hotplate in the front-middle of the room. Subject walks to the left corner and picks up pan, moves to the center of the room, places pan on hotplate, turns on hot plate, and waits for the water to boil. Subject turns off hotplate and exits room.

Experiment II.

Physicist: Subject enters a classroom and observes the instructions written on the blackboard: Boil water. Subject scans the room and notices a pan of water in the right front corner of the room and an electric hotplate in the front-middle of the room. Subject walks to right corner and picks up pan, moves to the center of the room, places pan on hotplate, turns on hot plate, and waits for the water to boil. Subject turns off hotplate and exits room.

Mathemetician: Subject enters a classroom and observes the instructions written on the blackboard: Boil water. Subject scans the room and notices a pan of water in the right front corner of the room and an electric hotplate in the front-middle of the room. Subject walks to corner and picks up pan, moves to the left corner of the room, places pan in the corner, then turns and exits room. When asked about the boiling water subject responded "Reduction to the previous case."

Well, I guess you had to be there.

[struggle4progress]

4. I trained as a mathematician and first heard a version of that joke

from one of my undergrad teachers many decades ago

I still think it's funny

But maybe you do have to be there

[DreamGypsy]

5. Yeah, I, too, was planning on a career as an academic mathematician...

...until I got sucked into a computer/software startup in the 80's. Probably the 3rd or 4th best thing that ever happened to me. I would have been a poor quality, unhappy, unproductive mathematician.

Besides, what humor is there in mathematics??

What's purple and commutes? An Abelian grape. Ha-ha.

What's yellow and equivalent to the Axiom of Choice? Zorn's lemon. h-h

How many great songs are there about mathematicians??? Ok, there's one, Tom Lehrer's Lobachevsky:

Here's to life as it happens, s4p.

[goldent]

6. Mathematicians know that iff is not a typo

[struggle4progress]

7. iirc some people still regard "iff" as a typo for "iffi"

"iffi" is supposedly the original version: "if" for "<=" and "fi" for "=>" so "iffi" for "<=>"

[goldent]

8. I've never seen "iffi"

although I like the derivation.

[struggle4progress]

9. Here it still is, in a 1991 philosopher's text on logic, long after it vanished

from common use:

http://books.google.com/books?id=rJceFowdGEAC&pg=PA254&lpg=PA254&dq=iffi+logic&source=bl&ots=dOo4MkhGs7&sig=rZqQsfOMPNi68zS7_DW75PEWghs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=W219Ua3vEI2K8QTUwYCYAQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=iffi%20logic&f=false