It's obvious

Tue Aug 12 16:14:35 UTC 2008

I've just searched the New Yorker DVDs through 2005 (I don't have the later
ones.) for cartoons with captions or keywords "math," "obvious," and
"blackboard."

It appears that there is a long tradition of cartoons depicting professors
contemplating complex mathematical equations on a blackboard. Here are the
ones I found:

"Duh!" (One scientist to another working on complex blackboard equation.),
Pat Byrnes, 12 April 2004, p.46.

"Hey, no problem!" (A scientist looks at a complicated formula written on a
blackboard.), Eldon Dedini, 19 March 2001, p. 126.

"Here's your problem-you forgot the sleaze factor." (One mathematician to
another.), Lee Lorenz, 30 Sep 1991, p. 27.

"You realize, of course, that this means war." (One physicist to others.),
Sydney Harris, 30 Nov 1987, p. 132.

"This is fine as far as it goes.  From here on, it's who you know." (Two
scientists talking at a blackboard with a long equation on it.), Eldon
Dedini, 17 Nov 1986, p. 139.

"That just shows how little you know." (One mathematician to another.),
James Stevenson, 19 May 1986, p. 34.

"But I digress." (Professor in front of class doodles on blackboard on which
is a complicated formula. Students look perplexed.), Peter Porges, 7 Oct
1974, p.42.

(Mathematician standing in front of blackboard filled with formulas points
to head indicating cleverness, to cat.), Eldon Dedini, 28 Jan 1974, p. 44.

"Ah, it rather looks as though Perkins is on to something." (Two scientists
observing colleague whose mathematical formulas have run off the blackboard
and out around the corridor where he is, still busily jotting them down.),
Warren Miller, 4 Feb 1967, p. 37.

"That and fifteen cents will get you a ride on the I.R.T." (Professor to
student. On the blackboard there are several formulas.), Lee Lorenz, 7 Jan
1961, p. 36.

"And here, in the language of the layman, 'Kerboom'!" (One scientist to a
group. There is a large blackboard covered with physics equations-he points
to the bottom of the board.), James Mulligan, 22 Oct 1960, p. 45.

"Say I think I see where we went off. Isn't eight times seven fifty six?"
(One scientist making correction on  formula that fills blackboard to
others.), Ed Fisher, 16 Jan 1954, p. 25.

"By George, you've got to hand it to him. This really wraps it up!" (Two
scientists look at a complicated looking formula on the blackboard-probably
Einstein's theory of relativity.). Alan Dunn, 11 April 1953, p. 25

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Joel S. Berson
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 3:57 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: It's obvious

Presumably someone having the New Yorker on CD can tell us, and date
it relative to Feynman, but -- I remember the cartoon as a single
panel, single blackboard wall densely covered with complex equations,
and just one professor speaking, "Yes, it's obvious."

Joel

At 8/11/2008 09:12 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
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>
>I don't know the the dating, here, but the Feynman story may well have
>inspired the cartoon. Also, my memory of the cartoon is spotty. It may
>very well be the case that, as in the story, it's Prof. B who agrees
>that the analysis is indeed obvious.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 7:16 PM, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca>
wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
> > Subject:      Re: ADS-L on Language Log
> >
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
> >
> >>Remember that old cartoon - from The NY-er, I believe - featuring two
> >>profs? It went something like this:
> >>
> >>Prof. A to Prof. B:
> >>
> >>"It's obvious."
> >>
> >>Nevertheless, having second thoughts, A proceeds to fill two walls of
> >>blackboard with abstruse mathematical calculations. After he finishes,
> >>he turns back to B and reiterates:
> >>
> >>"Yes. It's obvious."
> >
> > Oh, Richard Feynman, in _Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman_, has an
> > anecdote just like that:
> >
> > ----
> > At the Princeton  graduate school, the physics department  and the math
> > department shared  a  common lounge, and every day at four
> o'clock we  would
> > have  tea.  It  was a  way of  relaxing  in the  afternoon,
> in  addition  to
> > imitating  an  English  college.  People  would
> sit  around  playing  Go, or
> > discussing theorems. In those days topology was the big thing.
> >      I still  remember  a guy  sitting on the couch, thinking
> very hard, and
> > another guy standing in  front of him,  saying, "And therefore
> such-and-such
> > is true."
> >      "Why is that?" the guy on the couch asks.
> >      "It's trivial! It's  trivial!"  the standing guy says,
> and  he  rapidly
> > reels  off a series of logical steps: "First you assume
> thus-and-so, then we
> > have Kerchoff's this-and-that; then there's Waffenstoffer's
> Theorem,  and we
> > substitute this and construct that. Now you put the vector which
> goes around
> > here and  then
> thus-and-so..."  The  guy  on  the  couch  is  struggling  to
> > understand  all  this stuff, which goes on at high speed
> for  about  fifteen
> > minutes!
> >      Finally the  standing  guy comes out the other end, and the
> guy  on the
> > couch says, "Yeah, yeah. It's trivial."
> > ----
> >
> > James Harbeck.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>  -Sam'l Clemens
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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