Scientists and a Fire
A physicist, an engineer and a mathematician were all in a hotel
sleeping when a fire broke out in their respective rooms.
The physicist woke up, saw the fire, ran over to his desk, pulled
out his CRC, and began working out all sorts of fluid dynamics
equations. After a couple minutes, he threw down his pencil, got
a graduated cylinder out of his suitcase, and measured out a
precise amount of water. He threw it on the fire, extinguishing
it, with not a drop wasted, and went back to sleep.
The engineer woke up, saw the fire, ran into the bathroom, turned
on the faucets full-blast, flooding out the entire apartment,
which put out the fire, and went back to sleep.
The mathematician woke up, saw the fire, ran over to his desk,
began working through theorems, lemmas, hypotheses , you -name-it,
and after a few minutes, put down his pencil triumphantly and
exclaimed, "I have *proven* that I *can* put the fire out!"
He then went back to sleep.
When You Graduate
- The graduate with a Science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
- The graduate with an Engineering degree asks, "How does it
work?"
- The graduate with an Accounting degree asks, "How much will it
cost?"
- The graduate with a Liberal Arts degree asks, "Do you want
fries with that?"
How do you prove that all odd numbers are prime?
Depends who you ask
Logician
Hypothesis: All odd numbers are prime
Proof:
- If a proof exists, then the hypothesis must be true
- The proof exists; you're reading it now.
From 1 and 2 follows that all odd numbers are prime
Physicist
3 is a prime
5 is a prime
7 is a prime
9 is not prime, experimental error
Mathematician
3 is a prime
5 is a prime
7 is a prime
by induction all the rest are prime
Engineer
3 is a prime
5 is a prime
7 is a prime
9 is a prime
Some Pithy Quotes
The engineer thinks of his equations as an approximation to reality.
The physicist thinks reality is an approximation to his equations.
The mathematician doesn't care.
A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it.
An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who
made it.
Diagnosing Car Trouble
Three men, a physicist, a engineer and a computer scientist, are
travelling in a car. Suddenly, the car starts to smoke and stops.
The three atonished men try to solve the problem:
The physicist says: This is obviously a classic
problem of torque. It has overloaded the elasticity limit of the main
axis.
The engineer says: Let's be serious! The matter is
that it has burned the spark of the connecting rod to the dynamo of
the radiator. I can easily repair it by hammering.
The computer scientist says: What if we get off the
car, wait a minute, and then get in and try again?
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