Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

To Read

Student thinks they are going to read a bunch of science books, but ends up just having them in a pile.

After a while, it becomes painful to look at them and be reminded of the number of books I have to read.

Academic Treadmill

Student is running on a treadmill with repeating items like "Test", "Assignment", "Study", and "Review".

It’s the end of the semester, so you’ve earned a small break before you hop back on!

Minimal Assumptions

The secondary student carries a backpack, the university student carries a backpack and pulls a wagon, and the mathematician has a very small briefcase. This emphasizes how much one has to remember in each case.

“What if you’re in the middle of an exam and don’t have time to re-derive it?”

“Ah, well that’s easy stuff. You shouldn’t forget about that!”

More To Do

Person keeps on trying to fill their bucket of work, but they don't see it leaking out on the side.

This is a problem all through academia. I strongly suggest a hobby (like drawing a webcomic) if you find yourself in this situation.

Preparation

Student asks the professor what they should do to prepare for the exam, and the professor replies that they should do all the problems, which is infeasible.

“When I was your age, I did all the problems before the test!”

Author Long Jump

Authors are practicing the long jump, where the distance markers are the level of confusion one produces from equation to equation.

“To get to the last equality, the steps should be obvious. If they aren’t, please close this book and find something easier to read.”

Gas-Deadline Equivalence

A gas fills its container, while a project fills up the time until the deadline.

“I’m going to get started early and finish this way before the deadline!”

(Ten minutes later.)

“Well, maybe I’ll just take it easy. I mean, just look at how much time is left!”

Scientific Equipment

Someone asks a physicist if they get to play with a lot of cool science devices. The physicist shrugs and says that their most advanced device is a mechanical pencil.

Ah, do I just love the simple life of a theorist!

Shortcut

Student ponders a problem involving an integral, wondering if there's a shortcut to make it equal to zero.

As you do more problems, you groan at an “easy” but tedious integration, but you love it when you can pull out a neat trick to simplify things.

Near Miss

A student is working for a long time on their homework problem, only to find that they are *just* off by a small factor. They then decide to slowly drop terms in order to get the agreement.

The more advanced the problem, the more frustrating this becomes.