Is Zero A Number? The Subway Showdown

The evolution of physics students is a beautiful disaster. In intro courses, you're crying over a 0.001 decimal point error like it's the end of the world. Fast forward to grad school, and you're casually handwaving order-of-magnitude errors with "eh, close enough." The symbol "\Propto" (proportional to) becomes your new religion—because who needs exact values when you can just say everything is proportional to everything else? By year 5 of your PhD, you're drawing squiggly lines on napkins and calling them "approximate solutions." Welcome to physics, where precision is inversely proportional to your education level.

The derivative of Johnny Sin(s) with respect to x equals Johnny Cos(s). Pure calculus poetry right there. Mathematicians spend years learning derivatives just to appreciate this level of humor. The rest of us just nod along pretending we remember basic trigonometry from high school. I've used this joke exactly once at a department meeting and still haven't recovered from the silence that followed.

This is peak mathematical humor right here! The notation "f(Cat(cat))" is a brilliant play on function composition in math. In mathematics, when we write f(g(x)), it means applying function g to x first, then applying function f to the result. Here, we have a function "Cat" applied to a "cat," and then function "f" applied to that result—visually represented by a zoomed-in version of the same cat! It's essentially saying "the derivative of cat is bigger cat." The creator deserves a Fields Medal for this purrfect mathematical visualization.

Behold! Set theory brought to life with facial hair! In the top row, we see the UNION (∪) operation—combining two distinct entities to create a magnificent hybrid with BOTH characteristics. The bottom row demonstrates INTERSECTION (∩)—keeping only what's common between the two original specimens. It's like mathematics performed a mad experiment on these faces! Next time someone says "math isn't visual," throw this at them and watch their brain short-circuit faster than my coffee-powered calculator!

The robber's ultimatum is actually a logical OR gate in disguise. In the first panel, he shows the AND gate symbol (⊕) which means both conditions must be true - give money AND get shot. But in the second panel, he shows the OR gate symbol (∨) which means either condition can be true - give money OR get shot. SpongeBob correctly panics at the AND gate (certain doom) but relaxes at the OR gate because logically he could just give the money and avoid getting shot. The robber clearly took Boolean algebra instead of Criminal Psychology 101.

Behold, the revolutionary mathematical breakthrough that is... *checks notes*... basic algebra! This mathematical Columbus has "discovered" what first-year students learn before their first coffee break. Next up: this brilliant mind will reveal their groundbreaking invention called "subtraction" and ask if anyone's heard of it before. The sheer confidence of explaining the fundamental concept of finding roots as if unveiling the secrets of the universe is peak academic comedy. Somewhere, Newton and Leibniz are slow-clapping in the afterlife.