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{ 2008 06 11 }

response to xkcd for today

graph showing the square root of the number of attractive graduate students as a function of how many impurities are to be found in the field, with math being the most pure field and sociology the least pure

Credit for this joke goes to my friend and fellow student… who shall remain nameless because he insists he didn’t tell me this joke.

UPDATING: So apparently it’s been too long, and I need some help with this…. So. The value for math could be 3i or 3, but the value for physics is zero, period. This joke makes fun of physics students. Please feel free to correct me again if I still don’t get it.

UPDATE2: The version that makes fun of math students (yaaaaay not being totally stupid):

graph showing the square of the number of attractive graduate students as a function of how many impurities are to be found in the field, with math being the most pure field and sociology the least pure

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Posted by tarheelcoxn on Wednesday, June 11, 2008, at 15:07 America/New_York. Filed under comics. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. You can post a comment or trackback from your blog.

{ 4 } Comments

  1. Kevin Hunter | 11 June 2008 at 15:42 America/New_York | Permalink

    Hmm. You’ve not explicitly mentioned the origin. But going with the implied one, I’m curious where you got your data? I mean, I know we aren’t exactly teeming with attractive folks in the more “hardcore” sciences, but *negative sqrt*??! Yeesh!

    The way I see it this is this:

    1. Hardcore nerds are *that* bad. Ouch.

    2. Again, there’s no legend, but if this is real numbers, then the square root, implies a positive square. That means we mathematicians are actually more attractive.

  2. tarheelcoxn | 11 June 2008 at 22:26 America/New_York | Permalink

    Perhaps I need another graph: humor vs. impurities in field….

  3. Kevin Hunter | 13 June 2008 at 08:13 America/New_York | Permalink

    Alright! Now my earlier comment is obsolete! :-) I’m with those graphs all the way now.

  4. tarheelcoxn | 13 June 2008 at 08:43 America/New_York | Permalink

    Well, y’know… sometimes I just have to make this blog live up to its title… ie. make it completely obvious that I’ve been dumb. Thanks for this opportunity. :)

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