Lying with Statistics

Humour

Mathematics and Humour


John Allen Paulos argues in his splendid book "Innumeracy" that humor and mathematics are closely related, different sides of the same coin:
"Both mathematics and humor are combinatorial, taking apart and putting together ideas for the fun of it - juxtaposing generalizing, iterating, reversing .... What if I relax this condition and strengthen that one? What does this idea - say, the knotting of braids -  have in common with that one in some other seemingly disparate area  - say, the symmetries of some geometric figure?"

That's why you will find in this section jokes and anecdotes illuminating the various aspects of mathematics and highlighting the special character of mathematicians.