Happy April Fool’s Day! Scientists have a sense of humor too
Happy April Fool’s Day! Why not celebrate with a little humor from the world of science?
No, that’s not an April Fool’s joke. It really IS possible to blend humor with science and math. The American Chemical Society proves it in the video above.
You may find some of the jokes funnier than others. One of my favorites: “Never trust an atom – they make up everything.”
There’s another gem about two glasses of water concerned about the too-cool-for-school behavior of their ice-cube son. The punch line requires a junior-high understanding of chemistry.
If math is more your thing, there’s this classic set-up:
A man walks into a bar and asks for 10 times more drinks than anyone else. The barman says, “Now THAT is an order of magnitude!”
Don’t get it? Don’t despair. You can watch Matt Parker explain the joke (and others) in this video from our friends at Numberphile. (Parker, you may recall, was the guy arguing in favor of pi and against tau in a debate we highlighted recently on Pi Day.)
And for you physics buffs out there, why not watch none other than Richard Feynman deliver a stand-up routine on ESP, UFOs and astrology (disguised as a lecture on the scientific method). The video is a collection of highlights from the Messenger Lectures he gave at Cornell University in 1964.
If you enjoy science humor, you like the things I write about. Follow me on Twitter and “like” Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.
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