Math quotes

[Prunebutt]

I just wanted to share some of my math professor's quotes here. They're not thaaat funny but I really like it that he always keeps his serious tone, even when he's joking (which in fact isn't really joking... I can't really describe it)

One time we did a few examples in class. When we calculated the conclusion he said:
"We'll need that later so we're not doing this just for fun... Well, we're doing it for fun, too. But it'll help us later."

Or one time he told us aformula for... something, I don't know...
"And how do you know that's right? You can see it if you calculate it for yourself. I won't show it to you because I would surely mess up something in the end."

Or:
"And so you can describe many not trivial functions as a polynomial. And you can easily derive polynomials, you can integrate them and so forth. Polynomials are really nice!" I can't help imagining smiling polynomials! ^^

Don' know if you think it's that funny. I liked it. ^^

[hellerbarde]

don't worry, they're funny
Gilbert Strang said something awesome on one of the recorded linear algebra lectures (from memory):

"I won't prove that here for you. I mean I could, but who has the time."

cheers
Barde

[xander]

Why are numbers beautiful? It’s like asking why Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is beautiful. If you don’t see why, someone can’t tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren’t beautiful, nothing is.

xander

[theboss]

My Statistics teacher:
What is the chance that he or she is a woman?
Whhat is the chance that a woman can get pregnant three times in a row. [short pause with ppl laughing and girls looking a bit confused/angry]..uum assuming that they can.

[aryobarzan]

“Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.”

[bmonk]

My fave, from a number theory prof:

"Let's pick a random prime." (After day 2, we all knew it was 17.)

[malt16]

The other day, my Calculus teacher was going over some problem from the homework, and when he finished he asked, "Is this what they have in the back of the book? No? ...Well, forget the back. They don't know what they're doing."

[gwtkof]

From my calculus professor: "There is no such thing as free lunch... but there is the Richardson extrapolation"

[housey]

Teacher during a first year calculus class on Hessian makes a mistake,

Pupil: "Mr Anderson, there is an error in the Matrix!"

[p01ng]

My school's newspaper has a wacky professor quotes section, so we get to see a lot of crazy things the faculty says (but not necessarily math related).

My analysis teacher always said some goofy things, but I really got a kick out of:
"When you’re walking to lunch just say the proof out loud to yourselves. People may think you’re weird, but they probably already think that anyway."

Generally my favorite professors are the ones that poke fun at us.

[Marce]

jokes are really funny and i guess your teacher arouses your interest in this subject by some witty remarks. it really helps one to easily understand the subject.