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Desmond MacHale : Comic Sections: Book of Mathematical Jokes, Humour, Wit and Wisdom

Boole Press Ltd, 1993

ISBN 1857480074

1993 The Book of Mathematical Jokes, Humour, Wit and Wisdom. Paperback with some bumping to corners & edges, some creasing to spine, biro marks to bottom left of back cover, good bright copy. Pages clean, flat & tight, very slightly dog-eared to corners of first few pages but does not interfere with contents. Book Extract; Much of this book is devoted to what I call "anecjokes": that is, stories, jokes andanecdotes about mathematics and mathematicians, or jokes with a mathematicalor logical content. In twenty years of teaching mathematics at various levels Ihave come to believe that such material is not necessarily flippant but in fact hasa serious if not essential function in the study and understanding of mathematics.At the very least, it humanises mathematics and can persuade students that atleast some mathematicians are human and that even the most abstruse and abstractmathematics is the product of human minds.Mathematics and humour are closely related and logic is undoubtedly a connect-ing link. Mathematics is supposedly ultra-logical; humour is often ultra-illogical.Mathematicians are considered good at analysing logical situations, and perhapsthey are also more sensitive to the type of humour in which the laws of logic areflouted. When Bertrand Russell remarked. "Mathematics is the subject in whichwe never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying istrue," he hit upon an insight whose illogicality appeals far more to the mathemati-cian than to the layman. Einstein aimed at the same target with his observation,"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and asfar as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."In my experience, the level of appreciation of humour among mathematicians isvery high indeed, at least as high as that of any other profession I know of. Thisis perhaps because mathematicians have to be able to face so many jokes at theirexpense, and mainly fro, 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall, Good

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