Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Playback Speed

The various choices of video playback speed, from the perspective of a student.

You really owe it to yourself to watch a lecture at a quicker speed. Those who are super slow and difficult to listen to suddenly become full of energy!

General Case

A mathematics professor tells their kid to ride their bicycle without training wheels because they might as well go straight to the general case.

“You’re never going to teach him how to drive without my supervision.”

Naming

Scientists trying to come up with a good name.

This doesn’t just apply to group names. I see crazy acronyms on the arXiv all the time.

Perhaps the best instance of this though is in the comments section of this article, by “NJBiologist”:

Much like how Src is activated by Srcasm? (No, I am not making that up: see Seykora et al, J Biol Chem. 2002 Jan25;277(4):2812-22.)

You can find a paper on srcasm here.

Middle Steps

Professors skipping the intermediate steps.

It’s a time-honoured tradition of professors in mathematics and physics.

(This comic was inspired by Sidney Harris and his wonderful comics. In particular, the top-right one on this page.)

Squiggle

The odd tendency of professors to use difficult-to-write symbols.

Seriously, the number of physics professors that default to using ξ or ζ as their symbol of choice makes me think that there’s some collective brainwashing going on.

Project Progress

The start is always fun. Until reality hits.

Corollary: Your folder of started projects is overflowing.

Fast Start

Too many presentations go much faster than they should.

The inability for us to estimate how much content is too little for people viewing our work for the first time is probably one of the key reasons I don’t like most presentations.

Correction Key

The various reasons to take points off of a physics homework assignment.

Ah, do I ever love the RG one. It’s my go-to strategy when trying to finish an assignment where I don’t understand all the steps.

Exponent

Spending a ton of time searching for an explanation of an equation, only to realize that the exponent is a footnote.

This is absolutely based on a true story, and it makes me aware of every single footnote I write. I spent so much time trying to figure out how in the world the author arrived at the equation!

Title Filter

Physics papers have titles which are either very boring or contain puns.

Okay, I’m exaggerating, but only barely. It really does boggle the mind at times when I browse the arXiv.