It's obvious

Tue Aug 12 17:36:28 UTC 2008

Thanks, Dave.  But it seems my memory is faulty -- no New Yorker
cartoon with the punch line "It's obvious"!  (And I don't go back
much earlier than 1953.)

JOel

At 8/12/2008 12:14 PM, Dave Wilton wrote:
>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:
> >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> >Content-Disposition: inline
> >
> >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
> >
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>
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