Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

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!

30 Nov 2018

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.

28 Nov 2018

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.

26 Nov 2018

Scientific Process

The left panel shows someone explaining how the heliocentric model just made *so* much more sense, while the right panel shows the audience not buying the data for a new theory that a researcher is presenting.

Science is less about abrupt phase changes and more about slowly convincing your critics that what you say makes sense.

23 Nov 2018

Equivalences

Various definitions of equivalence in mathematics, including the regular "equals", "isomorphism", "definition", "only valid in a coordinate system", "approximation", and "the author left a lot of steps between these two lines, but you'll figure it out!"

Seriously, it feels like the authors of textbooks are sometimes just trying to mess with me.

21 Nov 2018

In Theory

A researcher explains that they work in theory, by which they mean "in theory", so as little as possible.

“I don’t know why people think my job is so special.”

19 Nov 2018

Show Your Work

In the first panel (representing school), the professor tells the student to always show their work while solving a problem. In the second panel (representing research), the professor tells the student that they need to show less work.

“We’re working with professionals here, not some young grad students!”

“But what about the grad students like me who are trying to learn from our paper?”

“I’m sure they will figure it out.”

16 Nov 2018

Frictionless Learning

A student sits on a block and slides on a frictionless plane.

Watch a pretty video explaining a concept, and you will come out thinking you know everything. Sit down and try to work through a problem, however, and you will quickly realize you learned almost nothing.

Learning requires a lot of slow movement, with a lot of friction.

14 Nov 2018

Impress Versus Scare

In the first panel, the professor gushes about how nice the equations of general relativity are. In the second panel, the professor says to forget about all of that, since these equations are actually quite nasty.

I’m firmly convinced that physicists and mathematicians are some of the best marketers for their equations.

12 Nov 2018

The Scientific Jungle

On the left, the city represents lecture notes and textbooks, the suburbs are advanced courses and internships, the campers are graduate school, and the tent is research.

“When no one can answer your questions, you’re getting close!”

(Originally part of my post on ErrantScience Clutter.)

09 Nov 2018