Anecdotes and Humor

Such a theorem as "the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides" is as dazzlingly beautiful now as it was in the day when Pythagoras first discovered it, and celebrated its advent, it is said, by sacrificing a hecatomb (100) of oxen - a method doing honor to Science that has always seemed to me slightly exaggerated and uncalled-for. One can imagine oneself, even in these degenerate days, marking the eopch of some brilliant scientific doscovery by inviting a convivial friend or two, to join one in a beefsteak and bottle of wine. But a hecatomb of oxen! It would produce a quote inconvenient supply of beef.
Lewis Carroll
(1832-1898) English Author, (1) p. 127

Sir,
In your otherwise beautiful poem there is verse which reads, "Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born." It must be manifest that if this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill. In truth the rate of birth is slightly in excess of that of death. I would suggest that in the next edition of your poem you have it read- "Every moment dies a man, Every moment 1-1/16 is born." Strictly speaking, this is not correct; the actual figure is so long that I cannot fit it into one line, but I believe that the figure 1-1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry.
Charles Babbage (1792-1871) English Engineer
to Alfred Lord Tennyson, (1) p. 155

And wisely tell what hour
o' the day
The clock doeth strike, by Algebra.
Samuel Butler
(1612-1680) English Satirist, (1) p. 299

Mathematicians are like lovers....Grant a mathematicians the least principle, and he will draw from it a consequence which you must also grant him, and from this consequence another.
Bernard Le Boivier de Fontenelle
(1657-1757) French Writer, (1) p. 304

I was at the mathematical school, where the master taught his pupils after a method scarce imaginable to us in Europe. The proposition and demonstration were fairly written on a thin wafer, with ink composed of a cephalic tinture. This the student was to swallow upon a fasting stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but bread and water. As the wafer digested the tinture mounted to the brain, bearing the proposition along with it.
Jonathan Swift
(1667-1745) English Satirist, (1) p. 312

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