## Archive for February, 2018

### Six Degrees of Titillation

It was 75° today. If you live in Honolulu, Karachi, Gaberone, or Rio de Janeiro, that might not strike you as unusual. But let me assure you that during late February in Crofton, MD, a temperature that high is rather unexpected.

But no complaints. It was nice to wear only a t-shirt and no jacket, and it allowed me to use this joke at the start of my presentation:

What a beautiful day! When I was invited to this event, I suspected it’d be close to 20° outside. I just didn’t realize it’d be Celsius.

Horrible, ain’t it? But don’t worry… I’ve got more:

• If it’s 0° today, and it’s supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be? (Stephen Wright)
• Are you a 45° angle? Because you’re acute-y.
• Why did the obtuse angle go to the beach? Because it was more than 90°.
• Are you cold? Go sit in a corner. It’s 90° over there.
• Why didn’t the circle go to college? It already had 360 degrees.
• I asked the trigonometer what the weather was like, and he said it was 15π/16 outside.
• The number you dialed is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90° and try again.
• What brand of deodorant did the angle use? Degree.

### A Mathematical Thank-You Note

I recently sent a copy of More Jokes 4 Mathy Folks to a friend of an acquaintance, and today I received a thank-you letter from the recipient. I think the letter is worth sharing, so here you go:

Patrick —

Thanks so much for sending me More Jokes… I’ve already annoyed my entire family, and I’m only 46/111 through the book. (I think your work here is done.)

I can’t provide a formal proof, but empirically speaking, this is the best collection of math jokes known to exist. Honestly, I enjoy the blend of quips and jokes; almost everything I read translates well into a groaner I can splice into my physics classroom repertoire!

Hoping you don’t object to the informality of my “stationery” — thought you’d appreciate the utility of engineering paper.1

Thanks again! Best,
Rob

P.S. I noticed — when I looked up your address (ed. note: STALKER!) — that we only live about seven root two2 minutes apart. How would you feel about raising a pint some evening? I’d love to hear about your work and exchange a few quips!

This is one of the nicer letters I’ve received, and it was fun to be reminded that not all mail needs to be electronic. And you can bet that some of those compliments will be used on a promotional flyer soon!

1 Quarter-inch quadrille paper, if you must know.

2 He had correctly written the irrational number as

$7\sqrt{2}$

but since LaTeX looks like shit as inline text, I converted it to straight English.

The Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks blog is an online extension to the book Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks. The blog contains jokes submitted by readers, new jokes discovered by the author, details about speaking appearances and workshops, and other random bits of information that might be interesting to the strange folks who like math jokes.

## MJ4MF (offline version)

Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks is available from Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, NCTM, Robert D. Reed Publishers, and other purveyors of exceptional literature.