(Thanks to the nice people at the bottom of the page for some gems . Your joke or gem could go here, too. Just e-mail me.)
“The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift, which we neither understand nor deserve.”---E.P. Wigner from ``The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences'' in Symmetries and Reflections, (Oxbow Press, Woodbridge, Conn., 1979), p. 237 (found at http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~bohmwww/quotes.html.
This link demonstrates the role math plays in science, technology, and culture.
Here is some math fun including pictures of mathematicians on postage stamps, when math terms were used for the first time, and great mathematicians on postage stamps.
Check this out for a really nice math movie
Check out Vi Hart's site for really fun math videos that are real math! Check out the ones about doodling in math class and visual multiplication. Here's a nice New York Times article about her work.
Did you ever wonder about zero?? Read on!
Here are interesting facts about the whole numbers up to 9,999.
And if that is not enough, you can enjoy is a number a day web site!
Here is a fun youtube presentation about Mobius transformations.
If you like to play tic-tac-toe and other games on a torus check out the web site of Jeff Weeks. Jeff was our 2008 Wiener Lecturer.
And here's all about Tom Lehrer's new math. Try this site for other of his math songs!
In math 135, Real Analysis, we prove the Bolzano Weierstrass Theorem, and here is a Rap version for the real line!! Rumor has it this will be on some final or another!
Corn mazes are very popular, and here's one with tessellations and a Fibonacci spiral!
Here is a site for everyone who has had a paper rejected (or been rejected from a job .... or.....).
If you want a theorem named after you, read on!
Here is a site that tells how (or how not) to write a paper.
Here's every scientist's dream:
If that isn’t good enough, check out this site to tell if you’re really a pure mathematician.
If you ever wondered where mathematics stands in the intellectual hierarchy read on!
(these very cool jokes came from http://xkcd.com )
Here's proof that if you can imagine, numbers are fun.
Here's how NOT to impress your teachers.
Do you know what i and pi said to each other?.... Click here to learn.
On a related note, why couldn't the circle button its pants? Click here for the answer.
Speaking of numbers, if people call you "four eyes," what should you say?
......I'm number 1!! (hint: i*i*i*i)
I hope this doesn't happen to you, but....
Is this what happens when a math student goes bad?
And if you like golf!
Here and here and are web sites for math jokes. Here's one for math jokes by kids.
Here is a web site for math comics, and here's a Larson comic for those who think they don't have horse sense about math (but you all do have good sense about math!).
Here are some riddles and here are some more.
How about reading 75 proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem.
Do you want to celebrate Pi Day every day? If you'd like the Beatles and Pi, then sing on!
How about learning pi to 1000 places, and here is pi to 2 places if you look closely.
Speaking of numbers: I thought about taking the square root of two, but that is just irrational.
If you don't believe in square roots, look here:
Here are two math-whiz mind readers, A and B, for those who are rational! (Think about it....they involve only logic!)
Here is a cool site for kids and adults with puzzles, logic games, including Sudoku, and illusions (opens in a new window), and here is a middle-school kid's site, Math Counts!.
Here's another cool puzzle web site, and Khan Academy is a site with really good math talks for kids.
In class, I talk about mathamagicland. Here's the real thing (an interview with a mathamagician, Arthur Benjamin, on Colbert Nation)!
You've heard about new math, well here's how our grandparents did math! (from youtube.com)
In the same vein, here is one more way to do math:
Question: Do you know why 16/64 = 1/4?
Answer: Cancel the 6's!
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Do you know why 6 is afraid of 7?? Click here for the answer.
WARNING: I have been known to put this question on final tests!
If you want to hear the answer sung, click here! (gotten from http://www.bnlmusic.com/ )
Q: How many elements are in a commutative group?
A: A-belian (................10^9)
What did one math book say to the other?? Click here for the answer.
What did the zero say to the eight?? Click here for the answer.
If you're in a German mood....What, according to Siegmund Freud, comes between fear and sex? Click here for the answer!
The number 12 walks into a bar and orders a whiskey sour.
The bartender looks at him and says, "Sorry, I can't serve you..."
Why?? Click here for the answer.
An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer.......
The bartender says "Got it!", and pours two beers.
What does a theorem drink when it gets thirsty?
Ans: LEMMA-nade...
Theorem: All positive integers are interesting.
Proof: Assume the contrary. Then there is a lowest non-interesting positive integer. But, hey, that's pretty interesting! A contradiction.
Theorem: Consider the set of all sets that have never been considered. Hey!
They're all gone! Oh, well, never mind...
Q: Do you already know the latest stats joke?
A: Probably
A friend got this in a fortune cookie (really!!): 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
A professor gives a multiple choice test and sees a student flipping coins. The prof. goes over and asks the student why he's flipping coins and the student explains he didn't study and figures that just random guessing would be better than anything he could do.
Finally, near the end of the test, the prof. sees the student furiously flipping coins and walks over and asks why. Click here for reason.
In the same vein, check this out:
A farmer asks his sheepdog to count his new sheep. The dog runs into the field, and after a bit, runs back to his master,
"40," replies the dog.
"How can there be 40?" exclaims the farmer. "I only bought 38!"
"I know," says the dog. "But I rounded them up."
What did God say when he created Actuaries?
He scratched his head and said "Go figure!" and they took it literally...
*Why is Halloween is equal to Christmas: DEC25 = OCT31 (hint: think OCTAL)
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Here’s what your math profs mean when they use the following words:
Clearly: I don't want to write down all the "in-between" steps.
Trivial: If I have to show you how to do this, you're in the wrong class.
It can easily be shown: No more than four hours are needed to prove it.
Brute force: Four special cases, three counting arguments and two long inductions.
Elegant proof: Requires no previous knowledge of the subject matter and is less than ten lines long.
Similarly: At least one line of the proof of this case is the same as before.
Two line proof: I'll leave out everything but the conclusion, you can't question 'em if you can't see 'em.
Briefly: I'm running out of time, so I'll just write and talk faster.
Proceed formally: Manipulate symbols by the rules without any hint of their true meaning.
Proof omitted: Trust me, It's true.
*Why did the student write LOWBAT as an answer to the question asking for
the integral of e^x? (HINT; He was using a calculator)
e^x and a constant are walking down the street together when the constant sees a differential operator coming their way. He starts to run away, and e^x asks "Why are you running away?" The constant answers "That's a differential operator. If it acts on me, I disappear." e^x says "I'm e^x, I don't have anything to worry about." and keeps on walking. When he reaches the differential operator, he says "Hi, I'm e^x."
The differential operator responds, "Hi, I'm d/dy"
If you would like to derive click here!
Two mathematicians are studying a convergent series.
The first one says: "Do you realize that the series converges even when all the terms are made positive?"
The second one asks: "Are you sure?"
The first one says: "Absolutely!"
A group of Mathematicians were in a band. They got up on stage and proceeded to stand there in silence for three whole minutes. When a member of the audience asked what they were doing, the band replied, "why, we're playing an imaginary number."
Q: What does a mathematician say at the door on Halloween?
A: Trig or Treat!!
Q: What does a mathematician say when she comes home and doesn't find her parrot?
A: Polly gone!
Do you know what (sin x)/n is? ANS: six!
Now, do you know what (sin x)/x is?
Speaking of imaginary numbers…. Here’s something that happened last time I got a wrong number: “I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.”
Do you know the shortest mathematical joke?...... Let epsilon be less than zero.
... and then there was the statistician who drowned in a river which was only
......on average.
What’s yellow, linear, normed, and complete?? Click here for answer.
What's complete, has an inner product, and is filled with satirical office humor? Click here for the answer.
Here are some good ones from http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AbelianGroup.html
Q: What's purple and commutes? A: An Abelian grape.
Q: What is lavender and commutes? A: An Abelian semigrape.
Q: What's purple, commutes, and is worshipped by a limited number of
people?
A: A finitely-venerated Abelian grape.
Q: What's nutritious and commutes? A: An Abelian soup.
An engineer physicist and mathematician are asked to make a fence to
enclose the most land with the least fencing.
The engineer says "I can do that" and makes circular fence.
The physicist "I can do better" and makes a fence that goes around the
equator.
The math bemusedly says" Oh yeah...wow" and makes a small fence around
herself. "I declare this to be the outside!"
A man was complaining that although he had been able to teach his horse mathematics and physics the horse was unable to learn philosophy, which proves you can't put Descartes before the horse.
What’s clear and used by trendy, sophisticated engineers to solve differential equations?
The Perrier Transform.
Here's a fun anagram: eleven plus two = twelve plus one
There are three types of people, those who know how to count and those who don't.
There are 10 types of people, those who know binary and those who don't.
Non-math fun:
Want to get an idea of the scale of the universe? Check out this site (opens in a new window).
And from the sublime to the funny, here's Tom Lehrer's word on chemistry.
If you want to see whether you are a scientist check this out:
A little girl on the red line subway told this to one of my engineering students:
What kind of ears do engines have? .........................................................Engine-ears!
Einstein, Newton and Pascal decide to play hide and seek. Einstein is it. He closes his eyes, counts to 10 then opens them.
Pascal is nowhere to be seen.
Newton is sitting right in front of Einstein, with a piece of chalk in his hand. He’s sitting in a box drawn on the ground, a meter to a side.
Einstein says “Newton, you’re terrible, I’ve found you!”
Newton says “No no, Einstein. You’ve found one Newton per square meter. You’ve found Pascal!”
Two protons run into each other and one falls down. One asks the other if he is OK and he replies, "I'm fine." The other asks, "Are you sure?"
He replies, "Of course, I'm positive!"
Feeling a little on edge? Check out this smile and, well, smile (the sound doesn't work on Firefox)! Then, check out the illusions!
Some days, you just gotta shout (and sing)! (This needs shockwave.)
Then, if you are a romantic math person at heart, check out this.
Check out a high-tech digital clock here.
Here is a Lego computer!
Here is a fun article on Babbage and Lovelace who were early computer aces.
If you like Louis Armstrong songs and animals, check this out!
If you like Beethoven's Fuer Elyse and animals, check this out!
Here is a web site of a wonderful movie on music and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra
Thanks to R. Ammon, S. Atlas, M. Babai, A.Berrian, M.Birtwhistle, B. Boghosian, M. Burr, A. Casale, C. Collins, J, Cormack, S. Cugini, D. Grayson, D. Greisen, T. Gwena, E. Harris (and the play “Proof” by David Auburn), B. Hasselblatt, E. Harvey, A. Haurwitz, J. Hugg, D. Ivy, S. Jara, E. Kalafarski, A. Kang ,R. Kufmann, R. Kelley, D. Lauden, K. Lewis, Max I.L.S., H. Lin, T. London, K. Maxwell, S. MacLachlan, B.Z. Mayer, L. Mittel, A super Ottoson sixth grade math teacher, K. Mueller, S. Mullins, R. Mungar, F. Nelson, K, Nichols-Schmolze, Anne A.P., S. Patch, C. Pierce, B. Powers, LQ, G. Raymond, J. Rennie, T. Schuster, J. Seltzer, N. Slaughter, E. St. Sauvier, C.M. Tan, R. Tobin, J. Waldman, M. Yan, J. Yorke, Y. Zhu, the Zigos, Uncle Karl, cousins Karl III, Lisa, Nancy, and Nino, niece Ashley, and some kind anonymous soul.