Can You Solve This Hilarious Limit Problem Involving Sine and Infinity?

[mattmns]

Well done. Out of a typical first year calculus class, usually one or two students will shout out "log cabin", causing much groaning in the classroom. I then get to proclaim "Close, it's actually a houseboat" and get confused stares. "You forgot the C!" prompts even louder groans, a double whammy.

ROFL! Were you my high school math teacher?

 

[Quadratic]

One time, I was just standing around in the school hallway, and I overheard three people debating over something. They eventually found that one of them was right, and the others complimented each other's efforts. I interrupted their conversation and told them that they were just like the angles in a right triangle, and everyone looked at me like I was crazy or something. (One is right, and the others compliment each other)

Regarding that Sin(x)/n=6 thing, it made me think about the secant of x devided by c...

That works -- when I originally heard it, it was pronounced:
The integral of the square of 'z',
From one to the cube root of three,
Multiplied by cosine,
Of three pi over nine,
Is the log of the cube root of 'e'.
I think it's a little more poetic this way, but yours is good too! Actually, I fiddled with it a bit to see if I could get it a bit more rhythmic (since it seems a bit clumsy to me), but without success.

That's awesome! My only issue is that it wouldn't really work where I live, since "z" isn't pronounced with an "eee" sound here.

 

[Paulanddiw]

Great limit joke!

I suppose when a log cabin goes to sea (C) it's a house boat.

 

[fourier jr]

That's awesome! My only issue is that it wouldn't really work where I live, since "z" isn't pronounced with an "eee" sound here.

yeah that was my problem, we say zed here

 

[quasar987]

French fourier_jr?

 

[fourier jr]

no, Canadian

 

[Quadratic]

French fourier_jr?

I'm pretty sure the US is the only english-speaking country that pronounces it as "zee". It's just like the spelling of colour, flavour, etc., and the way the word "schedule" is pronounced. When I first saw a "Lay-Z-Boy" store, I was like "... huh?". Anyway, just change the z into something like T or B, and the poem works just fine all around.

 

[benorin]

Q: Why do computer scientists always confuse Halloween and Christmas?
A: Because 31 OCT(al) = 25 DEC(imal).

C really is a great programming language. I mean, without it, we would be coding in BASI, OBOL, and PASAL.

 

[benorin]

Excuse me professor, but I think I've found a counter-example.
That's ok, I've got two proofs.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

When the math lecture has you drowning in a sea of abstraction, ask the professor to toss you a concrete life preserver.

 

[quasar987]

no, Canadian

Which university?

 

[fourier jr]

Which university?

uvic, aka university of victoria (i hope that's more than 10 characters)

 

[quasar987]

Oh! What are you doing so far from Quebec and speaking French? Are you lost?

 

[Quadratic]

People are right about my sense of humour: it has 180 degree symmetry about the origin.

 

[neutrino]

This is |BS|!

 

[Galileo]

My grades are always complex. They have a real and an imaginary part.

 

[Bob3141592]

"Have solved the Riemann Hypothesis" - G.H. Hardy

For anyone here who doesn't know the story, Hardy wrote this on a postcard to a colleague just before embarking on a stormy sea voyage. Hardy (an atheist) felt God wouldn't allow him to perish with such a claim to fame.

 

[Pseudo Statistic]

So, e^x the exponential function was walking down the street one day.. when he sees a running constant...
"AAHHH! THE DIFFERENTIAL OPERATOR IS COMING!" screamed the constant
"Hah, I'm not afraid of him, unlike you he can't change me!"
e^x looks into the far distance only to notice the differential operator on his way...
Once he gets close to e^x...
"Hey there!"
The differential operator let's out his hand..
"Hello, I'm d/dt!"

Got it off some site... but it was explained differently.

 

[fourier jr]

"Have solved the Riemann Hypothesis" - G.H. Hardy
For anyone here who doesn't know the story, Hardy wrote this on a postcard to a colleague just before embarking on a stormy sea voyage. Hardy (an atheist) felt God wouldn't allow him to perish with such a claim to fame.

yeah i think that's kind of a reference to fermat who left his note in the margin of a book saying... well everyone knows that. hilbert said if he were to wake up after sleeping for 1000yrs the 1st thing he'd do is ask whether the riemann hypothesis has been proven or not. i think i'd do what austin powers did, take a huge pee.

 

[JesseM]

Got it off some site... but it was explained differently.

Here's a more elaborate version (the longer setup makes it funnier, IMO) I found http://homepage.mac.com/ehgoins/iblog/B335600579/C307790143/E20050730135430/index.html :

The cocky exponential function e^x is strolling along the road insulting the functions he sees walking by. He scoffs at a wandering polynomial for the shortness of its Taylor series. He snickers at a passing smooth function of compact support and its glaring lack of a convergent power series about many of its points. He positively laughs as he passes |x| for being nondifferentiable at the origin. He smiles, thinking to himself, "Damn, it's great to be e^x. I'm real analytic everywhere. I'm my own derivative. I blow up faster than anybody and shrink faster too. All the other functions suck."

Lost in his own egomania, he collides with the constant function 3, who is running in terror in the opposite direction.

"What's wrong with you? Why don't you look where you're going?" demands e^x. He then sees the fear in 3's eyes and says "You look terrified!"

"I am!" says the panicky 3. "There's a differential operator just around the corner. If he differentiates me, I'll be reduced to nothing! I've got to get away!" With that, 3 continues to dash off.

"Stupid constant," thinks e^x. "I've got nothing to fear from a differential operator. He can keep differentiating me as long as he wants, and I'll still be there."

So he scouts off to find the operator and gloat in his smooth glory. He rounds the corner and defiantly introduces himself to the operator. "Hi. I'm e^x."

"Hi. I'm d / dy."

 

[abelian]

Polly's regret..

...and impure mathematics =D

http://bash.org/?450693/

 

[fourier jr]

that was published first in http://www.maledicta.org" vol III #1 which came out in 1979. it's very old. (but funny)

 

[MajikWaffle]

These are funny too me

Not really math, but amusing non the less

Q: Why couldn't the anarchist draw a straight line?

A: Because he didnt have a ruler

 

[spongebob_79]

ok, not really math, but funny nonetheless

2 atoms were walking down the street. One says to the other "oh no, i think i have lost a electron"

The other says "are yout sure?"

To which the first replies "Yes, I am positive!"

 

[uart]

Three Statisticians went on a hunting trip. They came over a rise and saw a rabbit sitting on the next hill.

The first one aimed his rifle and said "Just watch, I'll get him", but he shot way too low with the bullet landing well short of the rabbit.

The second one said "Ok he's mine now, I'll get him", but he aimed way too high with the bullet passing well over the rabbits head.

The third statistician immediately leapt in the air with excitement and cried out "We got him!".

 

[Galileo]

Not so much a joke as a brainteaser.

Three prisoners, strangers to each other, were suspects of a murder case. One day they came to hear that a sentence has been drawn. Two of them have been found guilty and will be executed, but they don't know which of the two . One guy, a statistician, figures his chances for survival are 1/3, so he goes to the bars of his cell and hails the guard: "Hey psst, do you know which of us has been sentenced?".
"Eh, yes.", says the guard, "But I'm not allowed to tell you.".
"Tell you what", says the guy, "I already know that 2 of us will executed, that means at least one of the other guys will be. I don't know them or anything, surely you can point to one which is guilty?". The guard sees no harm in that and points one of the prisoners, "He is guilty".
"Thanks!", proclaims the statistician, "my chances have just increased to 1/2".

 

[Reshma]

OK, here is another bad math joke:

What do you get when you cross a Pig and a Rat?

Answer: [tex]\mbox{Pig Rat}\sin \theta \hat n[/tex]

 

[Joffe]

Thats an interesting puzzle Galileo, had me confused for a moment.

 

[Galileo]

A chemist, a physicist, and a mathematician are stranded on an island when a can of food rolls ashore. The chemist and the physicist comes up with many ingenious ways to open the can. Then suddenly the mathematician gets a bright idea: "Assume we have a can opener ..."

Sad, but true:
The Evolution of Math Teaching

1960s: A peasant sells a bag of potatoes for $10. His costs amount to 4/5 of his selling price. What is his profit?
1970s: A farmer sells a bag of potatoes for $10. His costs amount to 4/5 of his selling price, that is, $8. What is his profit?
1970s (new math): A farmer exchanges a set P of potatoes with set M of money. The cardinality of the set M is equal to 10, and each element of M is worth $1. Draw ten big dots representing the elements of M. The set C of production costs is composed of two big dots less than the set M. Represent C as a subset of M and give the answer to the question: What is the cardinality of the set of profits?
1980s: A farmer sells a bag of potatoes for $10. His production costs are $8, and his profit is $2. Underline the word "potatoes" and discuss with your classmates.
1990s: A farmer sells a bag of potatoes for $10. His or her production costs are 0.80 of his or her revenue. On your calculator, graph revenue vs. costs. Run the POTATO program to determine the profit. Discuss the result with students in your group. Write a brief essay that analyzes this example in the real world of economics.

Math problems? Call 1-800-[(10x)(13i)2]-[sin(xy)/2.362x].

Let the lameness commence!

Q: What's yellow, linear, normed and complete?
A: A Bananach space.

Q: What's yellow and equivalent to the Axiom of Choice.
A: Zorn's Lemon.

 

[Palindrom]

You people are sad...

Allow me to join you.


A mathematician, a physicist and a chemist are watching an empty house.
About ten minutes to their watch, they see two people go inside the house. All three of them write it down, and continue watching, when at their surprise, ten more minutes later, three people are seen leaving the house.
The biologist then says, "Well, there was probably someone inside and we didn't know about it".
The physicist replies, "No, no, it is a common mistake of measurement".
The mathematician looks at them both and states, "If one man were to enter the house now, it would be empty!".

 

[NateTG]

"Thanks!", proclaims the statistician, "my chances have just increased to 1/2".

Must be a Baysian.

 

[Physics Monkey]

At a party:

What do you do?
I'm interested in topology.
Oh, so you study maps?
Only continuous ones.

 

[LeonhardEuler]

Not so much a joke as a brainteaser.
Three prisoners, strangers to each other, were suspects of a murder case. One day they came to hear that a sentence has been drawn. Two of them have been found guilty and will be executed, but they don't know which of the two . One guy, a statistician, figures his chances for survival are 1/3, so he goes to the bars of his cell and hails the guard: "Hey psst, do you know which of us has been sentenced?".
"Eh, yes.", says the guard, "But I'm not allowed to tell you.".
"Tell you what", says the guy, "I already know that 2 of us will executed, that means at least one of the other guys will be. I don't know them or anything, surely you can point to one which is guilty?". The guard sees no harm in that and points one of the prisoners, "He is guilty".
"Thanks!", proclaims the statistician, "my chances have just increased to 1/2".

Alright, this is killing me! Can someone please explain it!

 

[ranger]

Sad, but true:
The Evolution of Math Teaching
1960s: A peasant sells a bag of potatoes for $10. His costs amount to 4/5 of his selling price. What is his profit?
1970s: A farmer sells a bag of potatoes for $10. His costs amount to 4/5 of his selling price, that is, $8. What is his profit?
1970s (new math): A farmer exchanges a set P of potatoes with set M of money. The cardinality of the set M is equal to 10, and each element of M is worth $1. Draw ten big dots representing the elements of M. The set C of production costs is composed of two big dots less than the set M. Represent C as a subset of M and give the answer to the question: What is the cardinality of the set of profits?
1980s: A farmer sells a bag of potatoes for $10. His production costs are $8, and his profit is $2. Underline the word "potatoes" and discuss with your classmates.
1990s: A farmer sells a bag of potatoes for $10. His or her production costs are 0.80 of his or her revenue. On your calculator, graph revenue vs. costs. Run the POTATO program to determine the profit. Discuss the result with students in your group. Write a brief essay that analyzes this example in the real world of economics.

I got a kick from that one

 

[jim mcnamara]

Back to pathetic:

Pi r squared.
No.
Pi r circles.