Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Semester Cycle

A diagram describing the knowledge a person has as they go through a course. The curve steadily rises, with bumps at both midterms and a surge near the final exam. Then, there's a sheer cliff once the final is over in which students lose most of their knowledge.

This is something I worry about a lot when learning. It’s why I try to teach and write about the topics I’m learning in order to push away that cliff.

24 Jan 2020

Toy Theory

Presentation slide describes the research as being a model which is 246-dimensional, with three flavours of time, and lots of turtles. Researcher: "As you can see, my work promises to shed light on many outstanding problems in physics." Audience member: "But can your model even describe reality?" Researcher: "Oh of course not. It's just a toy model! But it might bring us insights for our universe, so it's worth funding."

I understand the need for basic research, but I sometimes wonder how many different toy theories and models we really need.

22 Jan 2020

Rogue

Student 1: "I can't believe it! My professor went rogue and made their own problems!" Student 2: "I didn't even know that could happen." S1: "How am I supposed to find the solutions online now?"

The eternal struggle: teacher finds new problems, and students react by combing every centimetre of the web for the solutions.

20 Jan 2020

Simple Result

Student: "Pi!? I went through five pages of integrals, algebra, and coordinate transformations to get only this?" Caption: I often have to take the long way before I realize there was probably a faster way.

As one of my professors used to say, “When you’re solving a problem, it doesn’t matter if your proof is messy, convoluted, or entirely unnecessary. If you’re using logic correctly, then it’s fine.”

17 Jan 2020

Labyrinthine Sentence

Researcher reacting to editing suggestions: "What do you mean, my sentence is too long and has too many commas?! You're supposed to use them like parentheses." Caption: After working with nested parentheses for most of their lives, a mathematician or scientist can navigate a labyrinthine sentence with the ease of Theseus.

When a single sentence begins to have its own subplots and narrative structure, you’re probably going overboard.

15 Jan 2020

Marketing

A grant application. Under the headline "The Big Picture", points include: changing the world, making our country look good, and leading to lucrative technology. Only at the bottom in parentheses it says "Will improve our fundamental understanding." Even researchers have to be marketers.

Maybe we need to throw in a bit more hyperbole at the top. You know, really dig deep and go for it here.

13 Jan 2020

Squeezing

Person 1 (while a mathematician is squeezing a lemon to make lemon juice): "I think that lemon is all squeezed out." Mathematician: "Not if I have anything to say about it!" Caption: Mathematicians: the best at squeezing everything they can from what they have.

“Okay, it’s definitely squeezed now.”

“Wait, I just saw a drop!”

10 Jan 2020

Nice Answers

Student: "I thought I did the problem right, but the answer comes out to be 71.367, which must be wrong. My professor only assigns problems with nice answers." Caption: I sometimes think we're conditioning students to believe in numerology.

On second thought, maybe we just end up switching our idea of a “nice” answer.

08 Jan 2020

Reading Versus Understanding

Student 1: "How did the test go?" Student 2: "Not great. I had no idea how to do anything." S1: "How's that possible?! You spent hours reading the textbook." S2: "Nobody said I had to understand it, too!"

I think every student has found themselves sitting at a desk with a textbook, eyes glazed over. Unfortunately, putting your eyeballs in front of a textbook is not quite enough.

06 Jan 2020

Parasitism

Professor: "As your teacher, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. When I'm stuck on a proof, I look for another result that implies mine trivially." Student: "So you're telling us to be lazy." Professor: "I prefer, 'proof by paraistism'."

Bonus tip: when stuck on a step during a test, try to argue that there’s a theorem that proves that step, and then proceed from there. This stops you from being unable to complete the problem!

03 Jan 2020