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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Math is punny.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I chuckled.
Guess that makes me a nerd.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Hehehe … I like it!
Then again, I’ve got Kate Bush’s song “pi” on my iPod – and it gets listened to frequently.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I get it. It’s funny because the little numbers have eyes and they talk. But they can’t do that. Silly numbers.
…
Right?
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Sorry, Phil, but it was hilarious until I read your puns.Now it’s just funny.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Speaking strictly for myself, I’ve always been fond of 69.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
LOL!
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Well, I’ll be the first to admit I don’t. I know 2^3 == 8, but aside from that, the panel makes no sense to me.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Do you know why six was scared of seven? Because seven eight nine.
~David D.G.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Ho ho, and then I realize it’s not a single panel, but a strip, and the BA only showed part of it! Now I feel dumb…
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I was really confused by the panel and didn’t get it. By the time I clicked through, hoping for more explanation, I saw the whole strip. By that point it wasn’t really that funny.
It would have been if I’d seen it all at first.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Is the new freind named Harvey?
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I saw this a couple of weeks ago at work, and laughed out loud. I sent it to a few workmates, and they didn’t like it. I suppose it takes a certain person to appreciate it. I’m not sure what sort of person that is.
OK, I’m pretty sure what sort of person that is, but I’m not one!!!
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
@Ed:
Oh man, I’m a geek, AND I’m old – because I get that too.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I was expecting a simple joke but it’s complex.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Tim’s pun got me more than anything in the comic or in Phil’s post.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Get real!
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Lugosi, Are you aware of the square root of 69?
8. something…
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
i don’t get it.
(Yes, the lower case i is intentional.)
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
It should have been an i, it seems clumsy that the author had to actually draw the square root of minus 1. Anyone who understood it would have understood it with i instead. BTW the garfield with out garfield comic strip is hilarious if you want a good laugh.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Reminds me of this, too:
http://www.xkcd.com/410/
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
This is still my all-time favourite geek joke:
“There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don’t”.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Crap. Forgot about the article heading. Well, it’s funnier in the negative.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Come on peeps, the strip’s pretty cute. (After I realized that I have to go and see the whole strip—umh, that there is a whole strip, actually—and not try and crack my noodle over some sophisticated mathematical pun well hidden but revealable in principle from the single frame posted above, that is.)
^_^J.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:47 pm
See, you made me feel dumb because I DIDN’T get it… then I realized there was more than one frame, and clicked to get the full strip.
OHHHHHHHHHHHHH…..
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
…I dunt get it.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I don’t really get it. Why can 8 see an imaginary number but not 2 or 3? Maybe it is infinity and not an eight? Still doesn’t make sense to me.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
The subject matter was a bot on the heaviside for me.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
So, BA goes off on a tangent with puns?
J/P=?
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Or a “bit”, even. Curse my rubbish typing!
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:06 pm
And Noah said to the animals: “Go forth and multiply!”
But the adders came to Noah and said: “But we cannot multiply, we are
adders.”
Then Noah went out and chopped down some trees and built a table of
logs. And he showed it to the adders and said: “Look I have built you a
table of logs! Now you adders can multiply!”
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Doug: there are two square roots of -1. You can’t say “the” there.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Great.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Why do computer programmers confuse Christmas and Easter?
Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec.
……
..
.
Paul Turnbull’s Noah joke rocks.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Just to note I did not write the adder joke, in fact I can’t even remember where I got it from. It’s been in a sig file of mine for years.
Also in that file:
Recursive: adj. See Recursive
and
There are only three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can’t.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Too complex for you? How about this modification then:
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6638/nofriendsni9.jpg
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Ok, that *is* funny.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Right.
That is the definition of an imaginary number. The square root of negative one.
But, anyone know why only 8 can see him?
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…. friend.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
But, anyone know why only 8 can see him?
Because it’s not 8, it’s a bipedal infinity!
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Ben E. King and Tom Jones have sung about this.
i, i who have nothing
i, i who have no one
Adore you, and want you so
i am just a no one,
With nothing to give you but Oh
i Love You
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Okay, and this is for Ed:
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9646/jimmyandfrankjh8.jpg
Anyone who gets this will have to be old enough to know who Harvey is, and young enough to know who Frank is.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hilarious!
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
John Armstrong wrote:
“there are two square roots of -1.”
What’s the other one?
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
@Mango: +/-i ?
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Mango, don’t you mean Christmas and Halloween?
And am I the only one who got the joke? (31 Octal = 25 Decimal)
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
The Mr. Snuffleupagus of numbers…
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I get it! I get jokes!
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
OK, I’m not a maths guy
I don’t get it. However, the point of the cartoon made a pleasant whooshing noise as it passed over my head.
So that was nice.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Over my head, but not so far I can’t see, it is no.8’s imaginary friend!
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
69? What’s the square root of 69? eight something?
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Too funny. I must be the biggest geeek in the whole world. My wife dint get it.
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Definitely worth a chuckle. thanks, Phil for pointing this out.
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
A brief explanation of imaginary numbers…
http://www.xkcd.com/179/
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
It’s times like these when I’m so glad I’m a nerd. Sort of like little inside jokes that the jocks can’t get. lol.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I did not get it at all… right up until I clicked on the image and noticed that it had another 2 panels.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Like several people above, I was trying to figure out if there was some mathematical significance in the fact that 8 can see i but not 2 or 3. I guess the joke was simply that 8’s “new friend” was imaginary
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Same, Daniel. I was ashamed at myself not getting it. Then I remembered how Phil always only shows one panel of a comic. Pretty sneaky, Phil.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
…I’m gonna cry. I really don’t get it!
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I read this joke somewhere..
3 statisticians go duck hunting. The 1st statistician shoot 1 foot above the duck, the 2nd statistician shoots 1 foot below the duck, the 3rd yells, “We got it!”
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:36 pm
@John Armstrong:
“there are two square roots of -1.”
Bah! There are at least 14 roots of -1 that I know of.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
LOL! I love it
Reminds me of another math joke:
Two missionaries are looking down into jungle clearing at hundreds of natives gathered around a stone likeness of a huge zero.
They strain to hear what they’re all chanting, but finally make it out: “Nulll, nulll, nulll…”.
“My God!” one says quietly to the other. “Is nothing sacred?”
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Test for a mathematician:
Q1: You’re in a room with a pan of water on the floor and a stove. You want to heat the water. What do you do?
A1: Obviously you put the pan on the stove.
Q2: You’re in a room with a pan of water on a table and a stove. You want to heat the water. What do you do?
A2: Obviously you put the pan of water on the floor, thus reducing the problem to one that’s already been solved.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Groan…..
ONE!
TWO!
THREE!
Those in the planetarium pun world will get it
– John if you ever rattle this one off, you are definitely on double secret probation.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
So that’s why I didn’t get it! (From a comment above, I realized I’m not seeing the whole strip!) “Imaginary” friend… LOL
Honestly, I think your puns are a little overdone – I feel really nerdy looking at them. (Kinda reminds of “Numbuh 2″ Hoagie Gilligan of KND)
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Mango,
I think that (31 Oct == 25 Dec) is better.
Folks, the values of the numbers 2,3 and 8 have no meaning. The author just needed three real numbers. The fact that 2^3 = 8 is an unfortunate distraction.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
i see what you did there, Phil.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 pm
I hear that five out of four kids can’t understand fractions…
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Sorry folks. It didn’t occur to me people wouldn’t click it; I don’t like to cut-and-paste entire comic strips since that isn’t fair to the artist. I added a line to make it easier on everyone!
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Tim G, I was wondering if anyone would get the fact that the title of this post is the worst pun of all.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 am
If you have to ask, you don’t want to know.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:47 am
Yeah, I got the 31 Oct == 25 Dec joke too…clever
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:42 am
Phil’s post = great
IRONMANAustralia’s post = greater
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:30 am
A friend and I had an old joke. It starts by whistling the three tones you get when you get that annoying Telco warning that you have dialed an incorrect number, followed by:
“The number you have reached is imaginary. Please hang up, rotate your phone 90 degrees, and place your call again.”
JC
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:56 am
Ouch! Please never do quantum superposition jokes…
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:28 am
@Geomancer:
Yay! I’m a bigger nerd than Phil! Hoora …
… wait … that’s bad if I’m trying to score with hot chicks right?
Damn it.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:40 am
This one’s funnier:
http://blog.emeidi.com/downloads/be-rational-get-real.gif
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:12 am
“Elwood Herringon,
…And am I the only one who got the joke? (31 Octal = 25 Decimal)”
No, but it works better when it’s told right.
It took me a second to realize the posted panel wasn’t the punchline. I stared at it for, like, a minute before realizing it there wasn’t anything to get yet.
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:22 am
Thanks for the laugh Phil. Even better, I showed my daughter (first year at university, studying science) and she laughed out loud. I’m not the only geek in the family!
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 am
This reminds me quite a lot of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKq6_vjrxMo
where pi and e are on a date. I think the people who would appreciate the comic you linked would appreciate that video as well!
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 am
My friend didn’t get it, so I told him to “imagine it was funny.”
He still didn’t get it.
Sigh…
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:51 am
Mikel, maybe your friend is just like many people like me who just… don’t get it, even if we see the full strip.
What’s that about the roots?
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:30 am
That was a good video, Matt.
I have a question for everyone: What you know about math?
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:31 am
Even as a mathtard I got it and love it because I got so messed up with that damn “i”.
It its imaginary then it can be anything I want it to be so there!
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:42 am
I got the imaginary friend part, but was also left wondering why 2, 3 and 8 specifically. I guess the numbers were incidental. Here’s another old but good one http://youtube.com/watch?v=OGh97__-uLA
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 am
Here’s a version with a bit better picture quality
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OmSbdvzbOzY
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:09 am
Religion makes life complex. It adds an imaginary component.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:48 am
Yes, I get the original joke, the “10 types of people” joke, the “31 Oct == 25 Dec” joke, and so on.
And I know who Harvey is, but who’s Frank?
Now, if only I could remember this poem I heard years ago… It’s about making a cube with edges of length negative one, and putting it in a cube of edges of positive one.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 am
I didn’t get it at first, but I have an excuse – I didn’t think in English. I my language “imaginary” in “imaginary friend” and “imaginary number” are different words through both words are synonyms.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
AGHHHRRHH…!! IMAGINE that! Or is that…imaginary?
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
j get it too.
// EE nerd
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:56 am
I must be math geeky, too, because I thought it was great
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
342 – 173
“You can’t take 3 from 2 – 2 is less than 3 – so you go to 4 in the ten’s place. Now that’s really 4 tens, so you make it 3 tens, regroup and you change the ten to 10 ones, and you add them to the 2 and get 12 and you take away 3, that’s 9.
“Now instead of 4 in the ten’s place you’ve got 3 (’cause you added 1 — that is to say 10 — to the 2) but you can’t take 7 from 3 so you look at the hundreds. From the 3 you then use 1, and you know why 4 + (-1) + 10 is 14 – 1 (’cause addition is commutative, right), and so you’ve got 13 tens, and you take away 7, and that leaves 5 … well … 6 actually, but it’s the thought that counts.
“Now go back to the hundred’s place. You’re left with 2 and you take away 1 from 2 and that leaves … now let’s not always see the same hands … 1. Everyone who got 1 can stay after to help clean the erasers.”
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
And mathematicians still wonder why they can’t get any
with jokes like this….
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 am
Jesus = lim(x->infinity)(c + xi)
It all makes sense now
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
It takes a real character to see an imaginary number. That will be eight bits please.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
@Doug Little: Anyone who understood it would have understood it with i instead.
Or a j, if you happen to be an electrical engineer. (At least, that was the case some – ahem – decades ago in the UK.)
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
i think it was funny. but then, i once did this to students in a physics lab i was teaching:
i was working out a problem on the board. i got to a step where i had
64/16=
i crossed out the 6 in the numerator and the 6 in the demoninator, which made it
4/1=
and then wrote 4 as the answer and went on.
a confused hush fell over the room before someone finally asked about my method of reducing the fraction.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I want the 4 minutes back where I stared at the one frame you posted before reading down and seeing the link for the FULL COMIC.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I once wrote up a complex number class and used it to render Mandelbrot sets. I suppose I could use that class in a program on friendships.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Keeping in mind that I nearly failed college algebra…I don’t get it.
And no, I am not proud of my innumeracy.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:24 pm
come on people.
the square root of -1 is called an imaginary number, because the square root of a negative number is a mathematical impossibility (the square of any number is always positive).
so no one else can see the square root of -1 because it is imaginary.
just in case no one else got that.
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Rene Descartes was sitting in a restaurant.
The waiter asked, “Will you be having dessert?”
Descartes said, “I think not.”
And he vanished!
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 pm
[...] ele está logo aqui! … – Por que ninguém mais consegue ver você? – Não faço idéia. [via BAblog] Veja também:Star Wars: A Saga de R2D2Se aceitarmos que todos os filmes de Star Wars [...]
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 pm
This one is just as good!
http://linkhead.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/get-rational-get-real/
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
[...] Not From Concentrate Stop! The dorkiness is overwhelming! (via BA) [...]