Paraphrasing from Ian Stewart's Concepts of Modern Mathrmatics (republished by Dover in 1981 and 1995):
An astronomer, a physicist and and a mathematician are on a train from London to Edinburgh. Shortly after the cross the border and enter Scotland, they see a black sheep in a field.
"Oh, look", says the astronomer, "in Scotland, the sheep are black".
"No", says the physicist, "in Scotland, some of the sheep are black".
The mathematician sighs, and says: "No. In Scotland, there exists a field that contains at least one sheep at least one half of which is black".
See also http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=4102 (comparing what scientists do) and even more on point http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=4092 (comparing different academics observations of a cow that they see while on a train).
3 comments:
Paraphrasing from Ian Stewart's Concepts of Modern Mathrmatics (republished by Dover in 1981 and 1995):
An astronomer, a physicist and and a mathematician are on a train from London to Edinburgh. Shortly after the cross the border and enter Scotland, they see a black sheep in a field.
"Oh, look", says the astronomer, "in Scotland, the sheep are black".
"No", says the physicist, "in Scotland, some of the sheep are black".
The mathematician sighs, and says: "No. In Scotland, there exists a field that contains at least one sheep at least one half of which is black".
Ha ha! That's great.
See also http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=4102 (comparing what scientists do) and even more on point http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=4092 (comparing different academics observations of a cow that they see while on a train).
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