Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Proof Routes

First panel. Student: "Ugh, I need to prove three different things to get what I need! And I'll need a lot more space..." (Long Route) Second panel. Student: "Oh, this is easy to prove! I just need to quote five different theorems. No work required." (Efficient route)

All students strive to be able to take the Efficient Route, and yet it is the most elusive of paths to a proof.

27 Apr 2020

Ansatz

The “respectable” way to use a shortcut.

24 Apr 2020

Filling The Bucket

First panel (undergraduate): A cloud labelled 'collect this information', and a student with a bucket. Student: "I'm pretty good at this. I should go to grad school!" Second panel (graduate): Teacher: "Okay, time to come up with your own original idea!" Student: "But how am I going to fill up my bucket?"

I wonder how well we prepare students during their undergraduate degree to make the decision of doing graduate studies.

22 Apr 2020

Intuition

Professor: "So what does your physical intuition tell you?" Student (thinking about finding their intuition): "Umm..." Caption: Each time I'm asked for my intuition, I feel like I'm being tested for my worth as a physicist.

I’ve been meaning to get to this, but I just can’t seem to find the time…

20 Apr 2020

Participation Grade

It's kind of telling how fun a course is when you see a participation grade.

At least the professors are being transparent.

17 Apr 2020

Abridged

First panel: "Eight pages later, and I'm done! That's going to be long to include in the book..." Second panel: "That should be good!" Textbook simply says: "After some straightforward algebra, one finds..."

Are textbook authors trying to make me think I’m stupid?

15 Apr 2020

Historical Conventions

Student: "Professor, why are you teaching us like that? It's confusing." Professor: "Three reasons: I'm used to it, it makes sense to me, and I'm the boss."

Student: “I’m going to fight against these stupid conventions!”

Professor (shrugs): “Fine, but I think every student in the history of teaching science has said that, and yet here I am.”

13 Apr 2020

Feedback

First panel: "Sweet, I'm already getting feedback for my new paper!" Second panel (in an email): Subject: Feeback. "Dear researcher, Your paper looks good. I think you should look at my 32 papers which are tangentially related. Also, please cite these papers!"

This is not what I expected when I first started publishing papers.

10 Apr 2020

Clear Proofs

First panel: "This is an easy proof! I won't write out too many details." Second panel (two weeks later): "Was I deliberately trying to confuse myself when I wrote this?"

The best part is when I write something along the lines of, “Clearly, this is true…” I want to strangle past-me at that point.

08 Apr 2020

Ahead

Supervisor: "Officially, we should only work on things that have solid theoretical foundations." Student: "And unofficially?" Supervisor: "Pretend conjectures are true, and work out the consequences. That way, you will be ahead of everyone if it's proven true."

You need to be prepared. It’s a competitive world out there in academia!

06 Apr 2020