The stereotype mathematician in jokes is a male writing some incomprehensible formula on a blackboard and not being able to communicate the meaning of it to his audience. There are however jokes where the mathematician is viewed more favourable. I found two of them on the site from Simon Singh. ( Simon Singh is an English author, journalist and TV producer, specialising in science and mathematics. He wrote a book on Fermat's Last Theorem. As I mentioned Singh collects jokes, you'll find his jokes on his website. )
An assemblage of the most gifted minds in the world were all posed the following question:"What is 2 + 2 ?"
The engineer whips out his calculator, taps away at it for a while and finally announces "3.99".
The physicist consults his technical references, sets up the problem on his computer, and announces "it lies between 3.98 and 4.02".
The mathematician cogitates for a while, oblivious to the rest of the world, then announces: "I don't know what the answer is, but I can prove an answer exists!".
The philosopher strokes his chin for several days, finally asking: "But what do you mean by 2 + 2?"
Finally the accountant closes all the doors and windows, looks around carefully then asks "What do you want the answer to be?"
( By Helen Arney )
An astronomer, a physicist and a mathematician were holidaying in Scotland. Glancing from a train window, they observed a black sheep in the middle of a field.
"How interesting," observed the astronomer, "all Scottish sheep are black!"
To which the physicist responded, "No, no! Some Scottish sheep are black!"
The mathematician gazed heavenward in supplication, and then intoned, "In Scotland there exists at least one field, containing at least one sheep, at least one side of which is black."
( By Stephen Oman )
Maths jokes are good source of educational humor, some time these jokes are tricky.
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