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Mathematics

mathtruck4X4A.jpgMy younger daughter is trying to follow in my footsteps (God help her). She gets on my computer and looks for dumb jokes. Here’s a math joke she got me with:

Q: How do you make seven even?

A: Take the “s” off.

It works a lot better orally than it does in type, I see. But she made me giggle. She is doomed to a life of starvation if she wants to be a comedian... I can attest to that. But if this sparks the tiniest interest in math for her, the future is looking brighter!

It occurred to me how weird it is to post math jokes when school is out on vacation. But school kids don’t read this site anyway... at least I hope they don’t! And since there is a possibility they will during this boring week-between-holidays, I posted this instead of a few racier possibilities.

This is a one hour video. But its the history of numbers, entitled The Story of 1, by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. So you’ll want to watch it when you have the time. (via Ursi’s Blog)

Remember the Fractal Pecan Pie? Here’s another instructables geometry project using delicious pecan pie: The Modular Pie-Cosahedron. (via Grow-A-Brain)

Here’s a mathematical term you guys can get into, even if you don’t understand it (I don’t). (via Exploding Aardvark)

Serious story: This is how math should be taught. Twenty-three-year-old teacher Lisa Suben told her supervisors she was going to produce her own fifth-grade math curriculum. A year later, her students achieved the largest one-year math score jump ever seen at that school, from the 16th to the 77th percentile. (via Grow-A-Brain)

How would you have done on this geometry test?

Blind Date - Olde English Sketch Comedy (via Neatorama)

The Useless Men tackle math, with the results you would expect.

How to calculate pi by throwing frozen hotdogs. (via Grow-a-Brain)

MATH DEFINITIONSmathmiracle.jpg

Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter: Eskimo pi

Speed of a tortoise breaking the sound barrier: Mach turtle

2,000 pounds of Chinese Soup: won ton

16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone: 1 Rod Serling

2.4 miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital: 1 I.V. League

Basic unit of laryngitis: 1 hoarsepower

365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer: 1 lite year

1 million microphones: 1 megaphone

1 million aches: 1 megahurtz

1 millionth of a fish: 1 microfiche

mathtest.jpg

 

Half of a large intestine: 1 semi colon

Time between slipping on a banana peel and striking pavement: 1 bananosecond

1 billion piccolos: 1 gigolo

1 millionth mouthwash: 1 microscope

1 kilogram of falling figs: 1 fig Newton

1 million bicycles: 2 megacycles

Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour: 1 knot-furlong

Shortest distance between two jokes: a straight line

First step of the first mile of a thousand mile journey: 1 Milwaukee

DOG MATH

(Thanks, Phil!)
A farmer is wondering how many sheep he has in his field, so he asks his sheepdog to count them. The dog runs into the field, counts them, and then runs back to his master.

"So," says the farmer. "How many sheep were there?"

"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."mathsmart_girls1.jpg

Previously on Miss Cellania: Math and Math Teacher

Thought for today: Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra."  -Fran Lebowitz


Posted on Friday, 12.29.06 @ 12:00AM by Registered CommenterMiss Cellania in | Comments9 Comments

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Reader Comments (9)

LOL...your daughter gotcha ;-) Since she's becoming a math whiz, I need this formula solved: plowed lane + 24" snow + 8 foot width by 25 feet length = face first on the carpet by noon?
12.29.06 @ 08:04AM | Unregistered CommenterSkunkfeathers
put a picture of a cat please
12.29.06 @ 09:52AM | Unregistered CommenterPrincess
won ton: I so get that!
12.29.06 @ 03:31PM | Unregistered CommenterLBB
Y'know, I would have gotten 100 in math if we had blackboards like those...
12.29.06 @ 04:31PM | Unregistered Commenteractor212
always love your math posts
I just bought (ie, paid good money, full price even) for a book entitled Zero, the biography of a dangerous idea. This from a guy who usually gets his books off the free book shelf at the bookstore, or from the library. I am assembling a collection of books that I intend to read in 2007. They tend more toward the intellectual, even mathematical. One of them is a study of Infinity. Oh, and I actually bought a volume of Proust that I've been meaning to read. One has to have something to do, alone in bed every night . . . n'est-ce pas? So I'll read, or do chess problems. Maybe I'll stave off Alzheimer's. Happy new year, Miss C.
12.29.06 @ 08:02PM | Unregistered Commentered
Ed, that book, Zero....is that the story of how the concept developed? It's a pretty fascinating story.
12.29.06 @ 11:02PM | Unregistered Commenteractor212
Carl, yep, that book seems to be the story of the concept of Zero. Here is a link where you can read the back cover, which has more information:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0140296476/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-3628922-1952706#reader-link
12.30.06 @ 03:46PM | Unregistered Commentered
I hated math until I got into the applied mathematics (physics, geometry, etc) where you could actually DO something with it.

Those are the oddest tattoos I've ever seen on those topless chicks...... ha ha
12.30.06 @ 04:42PM | Unregistered CommenterChris
1. They are not holding pencils
2. They are in front of encyclopedias!??
3. I'm guessing those operators are physics

Clearly the photo is a fake.

I'm claiming the (shaggy) sheepdog story. Generations of students will suffer. Very cute.
01.03.07 @ 12:11AM | Unregistered CommenterJonathan

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