It's obvious

Tue Aug 12 17:36:06 UTC 2008

At 9:14 AM -0700 8/12/08, 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.

None of these are the one we're trying to think of, although the 2004
one is a sort of play on it.  I remember it as being "(Yes, it's)
trivial" rather than "obvious", and I'm sure neither "math" nor
"blackboard" was in the caption, although perhaps a good keyword
search would pick them up.  But maybe I'm misremembering.

(The "that and 15c will get you a ride on the I.R.T." one certainly
takes me back--my daughter, now living in Brooklyn and a subway
regular, had never heard of the I.R.T./IND/B.M.T., and as for a 15c
fare...)

LH

>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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