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From: jeff@rtech.ARPA (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: math joke
Message-ID: <167@rtech.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 02:20:05 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.167
Posted: Thu Feb 21 02:20:05 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Feb-85 04:37:45 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Relational Technology, Berkeley CA
Lines: 40

A college has narrowed down the field for a graduate fellowship to two
candidates: a mathematician and a physicist.  Their qualifications are so
nearly equal that college decides they must give the candidates a special test.
They call in the physicist and ask the following question:

"Suppose you are in a room with nothing but an empty pot, a cold water tap,
and a stove.  How would you boil water?"

The physicist replies:

"I would take the pot over to the tap, put the pot under the tap, open the tap,
wait until the pot was full, close the tap, take the pot over to the stove,
light the stove, put the pot on the burner, and wait until the water boiled."

They then call in the mathematician and ask the same question.  The
mathematician replies:

"I would take the pot over to the tap, put the pot under the tap, open the tap,
wait until the pot was full, close the tap, take the pot over to the stove,
light the stove, put the pot on the burner, and wait until the water boiled."

The two answers are exactly the same.  They decide that they should break the
tie by asking another question.  They call in the physicist and ask:

"Suppose you are in a room with nothing but a cold water tap, a stove, and a
pot full of cold water.  How would you boil water?"

The physicist replies:

"I would take the pot over to the stove, light the stove, put the pot on the
burner, and wait until the water boiled."

They call in the mathematician and ask the same question.  The mathematician
replies:

"I would empty the pot, thus reducing the problem to one which I have already
solved."
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
aka Swazoo Koolak