- #71
BobG
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
- 352
- 88
36 squared? The sum of (x + y + z) squared, of course.
I remember a story my dad used to tell at parties about a salesman and a mathematician riding next to each other on a train.
They passed a stockyard filled with cattle and the salesman exclaimed, “Wow, I’ve never seen so many cows in all my life! There must be thousands in that stockyard!”.
The mathematician turns to him and says, “Actually, there’s 7,458 cows in that stockyard.”
“How’d you count all of those cows, so fast?”, the salesman asked.
“Easy, I counted their legs and divided by 4”, replied the mathematician.
My dad was a little hard to read, since he always had such a serious look on his face no matter what, so people would look at him a little uncertain for a second, and finally reply, “Oh, that’s clever.” I guess that works whether he’s showing them a clever method of counting cows or telling them a really joke.
Well, me, I’m a just a kid, at the time. If the adults at the party can’t tell if he’s serious or joking, how am I supposed to tell. I had a tendency to repeat things like that around the neighborhood thinking I was showing off how smart I was. Which other kids in the neighborhood were quick sense was total rubbish.
And, hence the great cow counting challenge was staged. Unfortunately, we lived in the city. The only cow in the neighborhood was the picture of Elsie on the billboard outside the Borden dairy plant. No matter.
The smart-aleck girl from next door and I met (with the proper witnesses) down by the billboard ready to settle the best way of counting cows.
The kind of cute (in an intellectual sort of way) girl with the glasses from down the street yelled, “Go!”
Almost instantly, both of us contestants finished counting Elsie, with the smart aleck girl screaming “One!” just a thousandth of a second after I shouted “Zero!”
You see, the billboard only showed Elsie’s head, so there were no legs to count. And I ask you, who was closest to the right answer? What’s the purpose of a cow if not to give beef or milk and how can you get a steak from just a cow’s head. And how are you going to get milk from Elsie's head? Tell her jokes til milk comes out her nose? I’m thinking that’s going to take awhile, especially if all’s you know are math jokes.
I remember a story my dad used to tell at parties about a salesman and a mathematician riding next to each other on a train.
They passed a stockyard filled with cattle and the salesman exclaimed, “Wow, I’ve never seen so many cows in all my life! There must be thousands in that stockyard!”.
The mathematician turns to him and says, “Actually, there’s 7,458 cows in that stockyard.”
“How’d you count all of those cows, so fast?”, the salesman asked.
“Easy, I counted their legs and divided by 4”, replied the mathematician.
My dad was a little hard to read, since he always had such a serious look on his face no matter what, so people would look at him a little uncertain for a second, and finally reply, “Oh, that’s clever.” I guess that works whether he’s showing them a clever method of counting cows or telling them a really joke.
Well, me, I’m a just a kid, at the time. If the adults at the party can’t tell if he’s serious or joking, how am I supposed to tell. I had a tendency to repeat things like that around the neighborhood thinking I was showing off how smart I was. Which other kids in the neighborhood were quick sense was total rubbish.
And, hence the great cow counting challenge was staged. Unfortunately, we lived in the city. The only cow in the neighborhood was the picture of Elsie on the billboard outside the Borden dairy plant. No matter.
The smart-aleck girl from next door and I met (with the proper witnesses) down by the billboard ready to settle the best way of counting cows.
The kind of cute (in an intellectual sort of way) girl with the glasses from down the street yelled, “Go!”
Almost instantly, both of us contestants finished counting Elsie, with the smart aleck girl screaming “One!” just a thousandth of a second after I shouted “Zero!”
You see, the billboard only showed Elsie’s head, so there were no legs to count. And I ask you, who was closest to the right answer? What’s the purpose of a cow if not to give beef or milk and how can you get a steak from just a cow’s head. And how are you going to get milk from Elsie's head? Tell her jokes til milk comes out her nose? I’m thinking that’s going to take awhile, especially if all’s you know are math jokes.
