
A joke about the difference between mathematicians and physicists - tazedsoul
http://www.thingspondered.xyz/2020/08/excerpt-man-who-loved-only-numbers.html
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xdavidliu
> A physicist and a mathematician are flying cross-country together. Each is
> keeping a diary of the trip. They fly over a white horse in Iowa. The
> physicist writes, 'There is a white horse in Iowa.' The mathematician
> writes, 'There exists, somewhere in the Midwest, a horse, white on top.

Reminds me of a quote from a favorite textbook [1] of mine:

> In mathematics, an argument must be airtight; that is, convincing in an
> absolute sense. In everyday life ... the standard of proof is lower ...
> evidence plays no role in a mathematical proof. A mathematician demands
> proof beyond _any_ doubt.

It's interesting how in the sciences, we worship at the altar of the almighty
Evidence. However, in math, not even evidence is good enough.

[1] p. 17, _Introduction to the theory of computation, third edition, by
Michael Sipser

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yencabulator
> It's interesting how in the sciences, we worship at the altar of the
> almighty Evidence. However, in math, not even evidence is good enough.

An alternate way of looking at that is, math requires you to be explicit about
basing your statements on observations: now you have probability theory.

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aidenn0
A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer are asked to determine the
volume of a red ball.

The mathematician takes calipers to determine the diameter and uses the
formula for area of a sphere.

The physicist fills a bucket completely, places it in a larger bucket,
submerges the ball and then measures the volume of the water that spilled.

The engineer reads the part number off the bottom of the ball, and then copies
the volume from the data sheet.

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jdsampayo
I remember a similar joke from a book some years ago from the school:

An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician are on a train crossing an
unknown country. Suddenly, the engineer leaning out of the window says: "in
this country the sheep are black!"; the physicist corrects: "in this region of
the country, some sheep are black"; the mathematician limits himself saying:
"at least from one of their sides."

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skitter
This joke is even listed as an example of a maths joke on wikipedia:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_joke#Stereotype...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_joke#Stereotypes_of_mathematicians)

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sunstone
The version I know goes like this:

A physicist, a mathematician and a logician are taking the train to Scotland.
As the train crosses the border they see a black sheep on a hillside. The
physicist remarks, "Oh look all the sheep in Scotland are black." The
mathematician replies, "Oh you can't quite conclude that, the most you can say
is at least one sheep in Scotland is black." Then the logician says, "Well
really the most you can say is that at least one sheep in Scotland is black on
one side."

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jake_morrison
Physics is mathematics with the constraint of reality.

Engineering is physics with the constraint of money.

~~~
avmich
Yeah, according to Vladimir Arnold physics and mathematics is in fact the same
science.

~~~
davidivadavid
Arnold's quip is that mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are
cheap.

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BluSyn
Seems there are many variations on this joke.

The one I know:

An astronomer, a physicist and a mathematician go for a walk in the
countryside. They spy a black sheep in the distance.

The astronomer immediately proclaims, "All sheep are black!"

The physicist thinks for a moment and suggests, "Some sheep are black."

The mathematician ponders awhile and says, "There exists a sheep such that at
minimum one of its sides is black."

~~~
Gibbon1
There is the joke where scientists lock an engineer, a physicist, and a
mathematician each in a room with a bed and a can of soup. In the morning they
open the rooms one by one.

In the first room the engineer is asleep and there is mangled open can of soup
on the floor. They wake him up and ask about the soup can. And he says, I got
hungry so I smashed the soup can against floor to open it.

Next room the physicist was sleep and the soup can open on the floor with the
top cleanly removed. And equations scribbled on every wall. When the wake him
up and ask about the soup can he proudly says, I got hungry so I figured out
exactly where to hit the can so the top would fly off.

Upon opening the last room they find a bleary eyed mathematician holding the
soup can saying 'assume the can is open'

~~~
andreareina
The joke is usually an economist saying, "assume a can opener":
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assume_a_can_opener](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assume_a_can_opener)

~~~
Gibbon1
I think economist is waiting for the free market to sell him a can opener.

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wtmt
This is a bit related:

 _xkcd: Certainty_ [1]

Edit: Here’s the text transcript:

 _> [A door seen from a hallway, with "Teachers' Lounge" on the glass, next to
the door is a sign reading "Award." Inside the door are two teachers talking.]

> Megan: My students drew me into another political argument.

> Cueball: Eh; it happens.

> Megan: Lately, political debates bother me. They just show how good smart
> people are at rationalizing.

> [The two teachers continue talking. A third one is seen reading a book on a
> sofa.]

> Megan: The world is so complicated - the more I learn, the less clear
> anything gets. There are too many ideas and arguments to pick and choose
> from. How can I trust myself to know the truth about anything? And if
> everything I know is so shaky, what on Earth am I doing teaching?

> Cueball: I guess you just do your best. No one can impart perfect universal
> truths to their students.

> Miss Lenhart:_ ___ahem_ __

 _> Cueball: ...Except math teachers.

> Miss Lenhart: Thank you._

[1]: [https://xkcd.com/263/](https://xkcd.com/263/)

~~~
sukilot
Truths in which universe?

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nojokes
A mathematician, physicist and biologist sit in a street café, guarding people
leaving and entering the opposite house. They see that 2 people go to the
house first. Some time passes and they notice that 3 people are leaving the
house and start to discuss about the meaning of this observation. Physicist:
"The measurement may have not been accurate enough." The biologist: "They may
have reproduced inside." Mathematician: "If exactly one person went into the
house now, the house would be empty again."

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tazedsoul
A wonderful and amusing anecdote that shows how both types differ. This comes
from "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers," a book about the mathematician Paul
Erdős.

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082349872349872
For a physicist, taking a mixed solution isn't "game theoretic", it's an
"ensemble average" solution.

(... and, thinking of time-averaging, you all have forgotten "on at least one
side, at least once during their lifetime." If programming has taught me
anything, it's that variables won't yet constants aren't.)

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yters
If they knew the labels were switched, they know which one held caffeinated
coffee...even the physicist is too sophisticated...

~~~
sukilot
They don't know if the labels were correct before, or even if the tanks were
swithet.

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xtiansimon
> "The physicist writes, 'There is a white horse in Iowa.' The mathematician
> writes, 'There exists, somewhere in the Midwest, a horse, white on top."

I'm neither a mathematician nor physicist...but this seems like a category
error to me. What the heck does a mathematician care about horses?

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qubex
I’ve heard this joke in another guise:

An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are sitting in a train
compartment and travelling through some countryside. Presently they come upon
a field, which contains a white sheep.

“Oh look, in this country sheep are white!”, exclaims the engineer. “Oh, how
unwarranted!”, exclaims the physicist “in this country, there exists a white
sheep, on a specific field.” The mathematician just tut-tuts and curses under
his breath. “In this country there exists at least one field, wherein there
exists at least one sheep, _at least one side of which is white_.”

Oh, and another great one I enjoy:

An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician sign up for a psychology
experiment. They are each locked in a room with a tin of baked beans, the idea
being that they will have to figure out how to open the tin with no tools in
order not to starve.

Sometime later, the experimenters check up on them.

First, they come to the engineer’s cell. There’s a contented engineer sitting
in the corner, craters on the wall, and the shrapnel of a totally shredded can
strewn around. They ask him what he did. “Oh, I just battered it up against
the wall.” Fair enough, they think.

Next, they check in on the physicist. They find him somewhat dishevelled, the
walls covered with scratched calculations, and a neatly severed can in the
middle of the room. They ask him for his account. “Oh, I calculated that if I
emitted a note on a certain pitch, resonance would eventually cleave the can
in half. It took me some time to figure out the note, though.” Again, fair
enough.

Finally they get to the mathematician, whom they find shrivelled up, sitting
cross-legged on the floor in front of an intact can as if venerating it,
muttering “ _assume the can is open, assume the can is open_ ”.

:)

