Did you hear about the mathematician who’s afraid of negative numbers?
He’ll stop at nothing to avoid them.
Hey-oh!
But seriously folks, who doesn’t love a good math joke? We certainly do and spent some time reading quite a few (it’s called “research”) for this post. But, this post isn’t about jokes – even better – it’s about funny math-flavored videos we’ve hunted down that we think our readers (from engineers to scientists to math gurus) will find as funny as we did. Here’s a roundup of some the best we found. (And remember, never read the comments on YouTube. Ever.)
Math lectures can be a bit dry. Math professors know this as they dole out stats, formulas, and heaps of numbers. But this professor? For April Fools, he pranked his students with a funny presentation screen joke. We won’t ruin it here but let’s just say that the student that got up and left half-way through? Her number is probably up.
Who remembers Blackadder in the 1980s? If you haven’t watched it during the past 30 years, this clip illustrates why it was such a laugh riot. In the sketch, we get a lesson in teaching advanced math using beans. (We were relieved that we knew the correct answers.)
Remember when you learned division those many years ago? Did you ever think it’d come in handy? Let’s say your cigar-smoking old-school landlord comes looking for your rent. Let’s say you’re a classic Hollywood comedian. And, you can’t really do the division in your head. You use the wall to calculate! And then you get out of paying rent. Easy.
Honestly? This is just five minutes of screencaps of kid’s hilarious answers to math problems. But it’s a solid five minutes. If you’re in class watching this or on an important Zoom call, turn down the volume and keep watching.
We love movie bloopers and mistakes, like a wristwatch in a gladiator movie or a camera crew reflected in a window. This video shows how bad math has easily made it into movies, TV shows and the news. Wizard of Oz, Shrek, Pi, and Star Trek? Guilty.
If you’re good at math, you’ll do fine in life. But if you’re lousy at math and you find yourself on a gameshow where the question will win you $15,000 – and the question is math related? Take a deep breath. And just guess the answer.
Sheldon (because, of course) from The Big Bang Theory makes the case for the best number ever. It’s not 5,380,008, either. That would be 73. It’s the Chuck Norris of numbers. Watch and find out why.
In this video, comedian Matt Parker provides a roundup of infamous math blunders. Here are two you should watch. One: Not fueling a plane correctly for a cross-country flight and having it run out of fuel mid-flight (hah hah?) due to bad unit conversions. And two: spreadsheets! Did you know that 24% of spreadsheets have some sort of mathematical error in them? We didn’t. So, what’s the Mathcad connection? That’s right, Mathcad can help prevent bad unit conversions and slay unknown spreadsheet errors. Yes, we’re bragging..
John Chilson has been writing about tech since the days when you had to dial up your modem for an internet connection. In other words, a long time. In his previous life, he edited trade publications (covering topics ranging from UNIX to Lotus to e-business to construction). Nowadays, John enjoys learning about new technology and telling customers' stories. He’s fascinated by the engineering of everyday things but is lately engaged in a battle of wits with an unuseful soap dispenser that was designed all wrong.
