The Math vs. Engineering Salary Equation

Engineers: masters of making things work while absolutely butchering math. The bottom panel shows every mathematician's worst nightmare - those horrifying engineering approximations that somehow still get bridges built. π=3? Screams in mathematician . And sin(x)=x? Sure, for small angles... if you squint really hard. My personal favorite is 0.0001=0 because nothing says "confidence" like just erasing inconvenient decimal points. This is why pure mathematicians need therapy after collaborating with engineers. The bridge might stand, but at what mathematical cost?!

The mathematical carnage behind this meme is both hilarious and terrifying! In math notation, 10!! (double factorial) means multiplying only even or only odd numbers up to 10, so 10!! = 10 × 8 × 6 × 4 × 2 = 3,840. But if you mistakenly calculate (10!)! (factorial of factorial), you're computing the factorial of 3,628,800... which is a number so astronomically large it would require scientific notation with over 40 million digits. No wonder we'd have flying cars and utopian cities—we'd have unlocked computational power beyond imagination! The difference between these two operations is literally civilization-altering.

Regular equation: *sleepy, uninterested* Simplified equation that cancels out to x⁴ = 16: *REAL MATH HOURS ACTIVATED* It's the mathematical equivalent of seeing the shortcut after spending hours on the scenic route! Mathematicians get absolutely FERAL when they spot an elegant simplification. The second you divide both sides by x, that equation transforms from a snooze-fest into pure mathematical ecstasy. The brain suddenly goes from 2% battery to SUPERCHARGED. Why solve a complicated equation when you can just... not?

This is mathematical heartbreak in its purest form! On the left side, our brave mathematician correctly works through the equation, factoring (x-7)(x-7) into a perfect solution. But then—plot twist—they somehow convince themselves that x²-49 equals (x+7)(x-7) on the right. It's like watching someone navigate perfectly to their destination only to make a wrong turn at the very last intersection. That moment when you realize your brain decided to take a coffee break during the most critical step of your math problem. We've all been there... though maybe not quite this spectacularly wrong!

Dating a mathematician's daughter? Better brush up on your number theory! This poor guy just failed the ultimate math dad test. Zero is indeed a whole number (integers including 0), but not a natural number (positive integers starting at 1). Dad's rage is mathematically justified - mixing up these fundamental sets is an unforgivable sin in the world of math. The relationship's future just divided by zero - undefined!

Just your average Monday morning calculation that starts simple and then spirals into mathematical chaos. This is what happens when you ask for "just a quick derivation" during a meeting. The top part looks manageable until you notice the product notation, and then it's all downhill from there. By the time you reach the bottom with inverse secants and cotangents, you've already mentally checked out and started contemplating a career change. Mathematicians call this "elegance" while the rest of us call it "the reason I switched majors."