Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2002 01:52:17 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Dave Hayes <dave@jetcafe.org> Cc: Joshua Lee <yid@softhome.net>, "Neal E. Westfall" <nwestfal@directvinternet.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Why did evolution fail? Message-ID: <3D786CC1.BC2AAE22@mindspring.com> References: <200209060438.g864cT199370@hokkshideh2.jetcafe.org>
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Dave Hayes wrote: > > I don't consider myself a mathematician by nature. > > Um, non-mathematicians don't spend a lot of their internet time > talking about elliptic curves and modular forms. ;) A knowledge of mathematics doesn't make one a mathematician; Algebra and Geometry are two of the five liberal arts. 8-). > > You are, of course, aware of the joke about the engineer, the > > physicits, the mathematician, and the fire... > > Which one? A physicist, mathematician, and engineer are up for the same job at a University, teaching problem solving to incoming freshman who had the misfortune to have been educated in California public schools. "But how shall we test them?" asks a member of the committee; they debate long and hard, ad come up with a test. They invite each to stay at the provost's cottage on campus over nights, to familiarize themselves with the campus. All agree to the visit, and the visits are scheduled for consecutive nights. The first day, the engineer arrives, and the day goes as planned. At night, the engineer goes to sleep. At 3AM in the morning, a ruckus outside the window wakes him up, and there, directly below the wind, he sees a fire in one of the trash drums. The engineer grabs the extinguisher, runs out the door, and empties it into the can, extinguishing the fire, throws the now empty extinguisher into the trash can, returns to his room, and goes back to sleep. The next day, the physicist arrives, and much the same situation occurs. The physicist sees a fire in one of the trash drums, thinks a bit, grabs the extinguisher, runs out, and uses exactly as much of the contents of the extinguisher as necessary to put out the fire. He returns to his room, hangs the partially discharged extinguisher back on the wall, and goes back to sleep. The final day, the mathematician arrives, and the situation is once again the same. The mathematician sees the fire, looks over at the wall, sees the extinguisher, goes over to the desk, and fills three pages with equations. Finally satisfied at having arrived at the correct answer, he straightens the papers, and goes back to sleep. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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