Monday, October 22, 2007

my dad the mathematician

Q. How do you know a mathematician is an extrovert?
A. He looks at your shoes when he's talking to you.

A statistician, a physicist and a mathematician were travelling from England into Scotland. They saw a black cow by the side of the road.
The statistician said, "Look! the cows in Scotland are black!"
The physicist said, "No, at least one cow in Scotland is black."
The mathematician said, "No, at least one side of one cow in Scotland is black."

If I asked my father "What's 100 minus 56?" he would say "It depends what base you're working in." At the dinner table, we answered questions like "1, 2, 4, 8, 16...What's the next number in the sequence?" (it was fun, by the way, which says a lot about me.) When I got 99% in a test, my father asked me, "What about the other 1%?"

Ever wondered why I'm a perfectionist? I was brought up by a mathematician.

All other children of mathematicians will understand. In fact, I've started a new facebook group just for us.

This blog is dedicated to Bek, who has the good fortune to be marrying a mathematician this December. Go Bek!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My father is also a mathematician... I read out your blog to Andrew and he recognised him at once.
I, however, didn't end up as a perfectionist......My rebellious spirit I believe....you saw it at work today when Steve suggested (once more) that we reflect on how many chapters there are in each of the former prophetic books. They're such a rollicking good read...who cares????!!!!!
PS I've joined your FB group

Jean said...

Love you, Heather, never heard so much constructive complaining in my life before...

Anonymous said...

Praise God John isn't so much of a perfectionist - I think I'm already enough of that to make up for the both of us!

Jean said...

Good on you, Bek, every relationship needs at least one of us (perfectionists, that is)...well, maybe not.