A math joke

[Saint James]

On one of my sub assignments, I saw this one the whiteboard (of a band room, oddly enough) and got a chuckle out of it. There's something about slightly obscure humor that makes it funnier.

√(-1) 2^3 ∑π

And it was delicious.

(sadly, I had to adapt a few of the symbols for internet format, It's the only way I could fit it in the tube...)

[Em]

It took me a while because the Pi symbol wasn't showing up properly on my PC.

[UEL]

Originally Posted by Em

It took me a while because the Pi symbol wasn't showing up properly on my PC.

I took a lot of time to try to see it. But couldn't. Until you mentioned the pi symbol. It too does not look proper on my machine. Now I get it.

[Swordmaster]

I don't get it.

[A Cat Named Easter]

Y = (r^3)/r

[Errata]

Originally Posted by Swordmaster

I don't get it.

Spoiler: i 8 sum pi

[ganzfeld]

I got it but ∑π doesn't make any sense so it stopped being funny.

[Embra]

The last time I studied maths was over 20 years ago, but I was able to google the bits that I didn't know.

That said, it's really only a joke in the same way as something like "L O. R U OK?" is an "English joke". There's a satisfcaiton in stringing it together though, and I did enjoy reading the Wikipedia page about i.

[nonnieyrissa]

*Spoiler alert, that is now probably unnecessary...i 8 sum pi.

ETA-Never mind. I should have refreshed when I got back home, before trying to reply. This is the 2nd time in less than 3 months that I have done that...

[nonnieyrissa]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

I got it but ∑π doesn't make any sense so it stopped being funny.

I am not sure at which part it stopped being funny for you, but I got it easily because, even though if we were sounding it out the i 8 some pi would sound like I ate some pee(which is strange, and even funny in an 8 year old humor way, I guess), I notice that for some reason many, if not most Americans mispronounce it as pie.

p.s. I saw your response in the other thread and will respond tomorrow. Too sleepy tonight.

[ganzfeld]

Sorry, I didn't think I was ambiguous: ∑π doesn't make any sense. How (and why) would one sum a constant? (As for the pronunciation, it's slightly different in every country and, besides, in classical Greek it wasn't anything like 'pee'.)

[nonnieyrissa]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

Sorry, I didn't think I was ambiguous: ∑π doesn't make any sense. How (and why) would one sum a constant?

You wouldn't. I assumed it was just one of those jokes that necessitates overlooking something(s) to make it sorta work, but the OP could also have left out a space when rewriting. Sorry, I thought it was the mispronunciation that killed it for you, so I thought I would throw out why many Americans would pronounce it.

[nonnieyrissa]

They teach the Ancient Greek pronunciation as pee here. At least at my son's high school(Albany Academy, better known as Catholic Academy locally), I thought I had been taught the same in college, but I could be confusing it with what my son's class uses. It has been a long time...

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by nonnieyrissa

They teach the Ancient Greek pronunciation as pee here. At least at my son's high school(Albany Academy, better known as Catholic Academy locally), I thought I had been taught the same in college, but I could be confusing it with what my son's class uses. It has been a long time...

But if the Greek letters represented with some consonant group and an i were to rhyme with see, then the song Sweetheart of Sigma Chi would not rhyme at all. At least 100 years ago, it was accepted as rhyming with pie.

The pi looked like an n to me, so I saw the joke as "i 8 sum-n" to be interpreted as "I ate someone"

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Saint James

√(-1) 2^3 ∑π

Gah. Do your terrible jokes have NO limits...?

[Swordmaster]

Once it was explained to me - thank you everyone - I got a good laugh out of it.

[Avril]

Fraternities and sororities pronounce it "pie." And it's "pie" in math class, usually. But it's "pee" in Greek class.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Gah. Do your terrible jokes have NO limits...?

Ah, but puns are integral to math jokes, even when they are derivative.

[Mr. Billion]

What's a dishonest mathematician's favorite mathematical concept?

The Fib-onacci sequence!

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by Saint James

On one of my sub assignments, I saw this one the whiteboard (of a band room, oddly enough) and got a chuckle out of it. There's something about slightly obscure humor that makes it funnier.

√(-1) 2^3 ∑π

And it was delicious.
....

You forgot "bazinga." "Bazinga" makes it funnier.