mathematical jokes | Vivax Solutions

A joke, made around mathematicians, by mathematicians and exclusively for anyone with a trace of sense of humour, is something for eternity, because, as the saying goes, mathematicians never die, they just lose some of their functions. Mathematical jokes, time and again, explicitly show that this particular tribe of clever folk do very little to prove that they do not live up to the corresponding stereotypes.

To their credit, however, we must say that mathematicians are often very quick thinkers, able to reach conclusions far faster than others. Then,they can see the humour in some jokes, but are easily bored by the routine or familiar. Last but not least, they often dismiss results that are obvious to themselves as “trivial”, even though the results may not be trivial to others.

The following joke vividly illustrates how the learned folk can effortlessly light up a meeting place - without fire:

One day a farmer called up an engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician and asked them to fence in the largest possible area with the least amount of fence. The engineer made the fence in a circle and proclaimed that he had the most efficient design. The physicist made a long, straight line and proclaimed “We can assume the length is infinite…” and pointed out that fencing off half of the Earth was certainly a more efficient way to do it. The mathematician just laughed at them. He built a tiny fence around himself and said, “I declare myself to be on the outside.”

Humour in mathematics, does not exclusively belong to mathematicians. On the contrary, there are plenty of ordinary folk, who make their regular own contribution to the field that include teenagers who take mathematics as a serious subject at major exams.

 

For instance, this is how a student answered a question in his GCSE maths paper - when he ran out of ideas, of course.

Maths Humour One - | Vivax Solutions

Answer:
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On another occasion, a hapless student took an English word quite literally and embarrassed both himself and his mother-tongue.

Maths Humour One - | Vivax Solutions

Answer:
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In the realm of mathematics, personified i and π are at each other's throat since time immemorial. Find out why.

Maths Humour Two - | Vivax Solutions

Answer:
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Sometimes, a fairly mundane task, such as solving a simple equation, can raise eyebrows, when the gift of logic is misplaced. This is a classic example of it.

Maths Humour Three - | Vivax Solutions

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Add a celebrity to mathematics, the subject becomes a star in its own right with reasonable cosmic significance. This is how it happens.

Maths Humour Four - | Vivax Solutions

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It goes without saying how calculator plays its role when the mental maths skills are being atrophied. You don't have to look further than this to get a sense of it.

Maths Humour Five - | Vivax Solutions

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Even the eatables cannot avoid being dragged into the sphere of mathematical humour. This is how the famous Italian food landed in it.

Maths Humour Six - | Vivax Solutions

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If our obsession with security goes too far, it also provides and opportunity for the birth of mathematical joke.

Maths Humour Seven - | Vivax Solutions

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When it comes to family matters, mathematicians, are often compelled to roll over their eyes with indecision.

Maths Humour Eight - | Vivax Solutions

Answer:
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Sometimes, the tentacles of morality can confuse a little child, even when he is trying to do simple maths See what happened to little Thomas.

Maths Humour Nine - | Vivax Solutions

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Meena was thinking about an excuse, when she ran out of normal excuses that kids normally make, for not doing her homework; she had a brainwave: she thought of her solar-powered calculator - and got one!

Maths Humour Ten - | Vivax Solutions

Answer:
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This is the only snake found in Britain. It, however, cannot multiply. Why?

Maths Humour Eleven - | Vivax Solutions

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How do you show that one half of twelve is seven?

Maths Humour Twelve - | Vivax Solutions

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When worked out on a calculator, this never produces a role model for a safe road crossing!

Maths Humour Thirteen - | Vivax Solutions

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There is a dozen birds perching on a line and suddenly one takes flight. How many are left on the line?

Maths Humour Fourteen - | Vivax Solutions

Answer:
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There are instances when certain random observations by ingenious mathematicians bordered on subtle form of humour. The conversation between Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Indian mathematician and G H Hardy, the Cambridge mathematician, produced such a quip while the former was in hospital bed in Putney, West London in the early 20th century. In Hardy's words:
"I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways."
1729 = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103!
The story of mathematical humour - this is not the end...

 

 

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