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http://www.princeton.edu/~sacm/humor/proof.html
My personal favourit is
proof by reduction to the wrong problem:
'To see that infinite-dimensional colored cycle stripping is
decidable, we reduce it to the halting problem.'
Although cosmology also seemed topical. ;-)
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Invisible <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
> http://www.princeton.edu/~sacm/humor/proof.html
proof by intimidation:
'Trivial'.
indeed an often used word. :)
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Invisible wrote:
> proof by reduction to the wrong problem:
I liked one that we got in a class on parallel processing. Prof writes up an
algorithm that doesn't have any loops (since it's done in parallel). He says
"This is order one. Proof by ... well, proof by inspection. Look at it!"
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
I get "focus follows gaze"?
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Darren New wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> proof by reduction to the wrong problem:
>
> I liked one that we got in a class on parallel processing. Prof writes
> up an algorithm that doesn't have any loops (since it's done in
> parallel). He says "This is order one. Proof by ... well, proof by
> inspection. Look at it!"
>
Reminds me that one of my maths teachers, at high school, once wrote an
equation on the blackboard and said “It is obvious that…” Looked at the
board again, left the room, came back 15 minutes later and said “Yes, it
is obvious that...”
--
Best Regards,
Stephen
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Stephen <mca### [at] aoldotcom> wrote:
> Reminds me that one of my maths teachers, at high school, once wrote an
> equation on the blackboard and said ???It is obvious that?????? Looked at the
> board again, left the room, came back 15 minutes later and said ???Yes, it
> is obvious that...???
Many teachers of technical subjects have their odd and funny quirks. The
higher the school level, the more likely. This is especially true at
university level, probably because a professorship is a more or less permanent
tenure (at least in many countries) and they don't have to worry too much
about getting fired (this is done intentionally because it's seen as
promoting free and radical thinking without the fear of losing their jobs).
(Of course this can have negative side-effects as well. You hear all the
time stories about university professors spending an antire lecture ranting
about politics, especially in the US, even though the course subject has
absolutely nothing to do about that (eg. it's a math or physics course).)
--
- Warp
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On 02/06/10 03:42, Warp wrote:
> (Of course this can have negative side-effects as well. You hear all the
> time stories about university professors spending an antire lecture ranting
> about politics, especially in the US, even though the course subject has
> absolutely nothing to do about that (eg. it's a math or physics course).)
I'm sure this is very rare. Never heard this happening in any of the
two universities I was in over a period of 11 years.
--
A closed mouth gathers no feet...
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On 6-2-2010 12:42, Warp wrote:
> Stephen <mca### [at] aoldotcom> wrote:
>> Reminds me that one of my maths teachers, at high school, once wrote an
>> equation on the blackboard and said ???It is obvious that?????? Looked at the
>> board again, left the room, came back 15 minutes later and said ???Yes, it
>> is obvious that...???
>
> Many teachers of technical subjects have their odd and funny quirks. The
> higher the school level, the more likely. This is especially true at
> university level, probably because a professorship is a more or less permanent
> tenure (at least in many countries) and they don't have to worry too much
> about getting fired (this is done intentionally because it's seen as
> promoting free and radical thinking without the fear of losing their jobs).
I can only speak for myself. I was teaching digital technology at an
applied university to electrical engineering students for the last half
year. I deliberately tried to make sure they were thinking I am slightly
strange. (Which is quite close to reality off course). In almost every
test there were strange questions and strange answers.
The purpose of this is to force them to think every time whether I mean
it or not. E.g my first test contained the question 'do you think I am
weird?' (embedded in a boolean disjunction). I explained later to them
that if they think so and answer truthfully, that answer is obviously
correct. Hopefully next time they don't assume it is a trick question if
I ask something simple.
One other thing I am rather proud of is asking before a test who was
left and who was right handed and handed out papers accordingly. Can
anyone guess what the difference was?
I also think that for this group being weird *and* knowledgeable gives
them more trust that I really know what I am talking about and not just
have read a week in advance in the reader.
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andrel wrote:
> Can anyone guess what the difference was?
Direction of axes?
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
I get "focus follows gaze"?
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On 6-2-2010 22:01, Darren New wrote:
> andrel wrote:
>> Can anyone guess what the difference was?
>
> Direction of axes?
>
That would work in a physics test, but an interesting suggestion. This
was just about and/or/not/xor and representation of integers.
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andrel wrote:
> One other thing I am rather proud of is asking before a test who was
> left and who was right handed and handed out papers accordingly. Can
> anyone guess what the difference was?
The side of the page that the name went on?
...Chambers
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