Bad Math Jokes

After a semester of teaching developmental math at Utah Valley State College, I've assembled a few bad math jokes. We're talking real groaners here. So now I've decided to tell them on my blog. When I tell one to my class, I'll post it here on the blog as well.

Last night was my first session with a new class. The poor kids got this one last night:

A contest was devised to determine whether mathematicians or physicists were smarter. A mathematician and a physicist would be given a set of practical problems to solve, each problem a little more difficult than the previous situation, and based on their behavior, they could determine the relative intelligence of the two.

The first situation consisted of a room with a bucket of water on a table and a fire in the corner. The physicist entered the room sized up the situation, picked up the bucket of water and used it to douse the flame. The mathematician entered the room and also picked up the bucket of water and used it to douse the flame.

The second situation consisted of a room with a sink in one corner, an empty bucket on a table, and a fire in another corner. The physicist entered the room, grabbed the bucket from the table, filled it with water at the sink, and used the bucket of water to douse the flame. The mathematician entered the room, grabbed the bucket from the table, filled it with water, replaced it on the table and said, "I have reduced it to the previous case."