References

Paper: "As was shown in Ref.[4], their results are completely in agreement with ours." Person: "But where am I supposed to look? The paper is sixty pages long!" Caption: Would it really kill us to reference where in a document we are referring to?

Seriously, could there be anything more annoying than failing to specify where items of interest are? I know, it’s not “conventional”, but come on.

Update: And yes, thats a typo. I don’t have the original anymore, so there’s nothing I can do to fix it!

29 Jun 2020

Cheating

Person 1: "Are you cheating on our homework?" Person 2 (looking at their device): "I'm trying, but the material is so advanced that I can barely follow the solutions!"

The best strategy to defend students from copying.

26 Jun 2020

To The Brim

Person 1: "Are you sure that's going to fit?" Person 2 (filling a container labelled 'stuff in your life' and getting near the brim): "Oh yeah, look at all of that room!"

“If it’s not in danger of overflowing, you’re not doing it right!”

24 Jun 2020

Definition

(Dictionary entry) Physicist: A person who works very hard to avoid exactly solving the problem they set for themselves.

“Okay class, we’ve spent a lot of time writing down these complicated expressions. Well, it turns out we can’t actually evaluate these, so we’re just going to use some tricks to get approximate solutions.”

22 Jun 2020

Strategic Email

"Wow, this student once again emailed me just as I sat down. I guess I'll start with their email before getting to the 97 others." Caption: My new email strategy: schedule emails to be sent right as they check their mountain of email.

Don’t tell me Handwaving never gives out good advice for academia!

19 Jun 2020

Enthusiasm

A rapidly growing function depicting how the number of pieces of chalk broken scales with the enthusiasm of the professor.

The best is when they break a piece, pause, try again, and break another piece a few moments later.

17 Jun 2020

Breakthrough

"Hmm, this part of the grant application is asking us why we should be doing this research. What should I say?" "Just say it will change the world if we can make a breakthrough." "Is that likely?" "Heck no, but there's no reason to tell them that!"

Ah, there’s nothing more relaxing than writing grant applications. They really make you indulge in your biggest fantasies for your research.

15 Jun 2020

Show Me

How to respond to scientific claims you don't agree with: 1) Show me derivation from first principles! 2) Show me the original paper! 3) Show me the - Ugh, never mind. Hah, I win!

It’s funny how many disagreements ultimately end like this.

12 Jun 2020

Fractional Gains

$A student pulls a cart that depicts their obligations. It is quite full, but yet they say yes to adding something else because it's just a small fractional gain.$

Beware of percentages.

10 Jun 2020

Basics

Host: "Professor, could you start off by explaining our standard conception of gravity for our listeners, and then share what you've been doing-" Professor: "Gah, I can't do this. It's all trivial. Nobody wants to listen to that!" Caption: When you've spent so much time talking with experts that you forget that some people are just interested in the basics.

I sometimes notice myself rolling my eyes when I see another explanation of a basic concept that I know well, but then I realize that the target audience is not me.

Communicating to the public is important and distinct from communicating with experts.

08 Jun 2020

To the past To the present