Math humor

[mstueben@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael A. Stueben)]

                       THIRTEEN MISUNDERSTANDINGS
                                 IN THE
                         HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS


In the interest of historical accuracy let it be known that ....

  1.  Fibonacci's daughter was not named "Bunny."

  2.  Michael Rolle was not Danish, and did not call his daughter
      "Tootsie."

  3.  William Horner was not called "Little-Jack" by his friends.

  4.  The "G" in G.  Peano does not stand for "grand."

  5.  Rene Descartes' middle name is not "push."

  6.  Isaac Barrow's middle name is not "wheel."

  7.  There is no such place as the University of Wis-cosine, and if
      there was, the motto of their mathematics department would not be
      "Secant ye shall find."

  8.  Although Euler is pronounced oil-er, it does not follow that
      Euclid is pronounced oi-clid.

  9.  Franklin D.  Roosevelt never said "The only thing we have to
      sphere is sphere itself."

 10.  Fibonacci is not a shortened form of the Italian name that is
      actually spelled:  F i bb ooo nnnnn aaaaaaaa
      ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

 11.  It is true that August Mobius was a difficult and opinionated
      man.  But he was not so rigid that he could only see one side to
      every question.

 12.  It is true that Johannes Kepler had an uphill struggle in
      explaining his theory of elliptical orbits to the other
      astronomers of his time.  And it is also true that his first
      attempt was a failure.  But it is not true that after his lecture
      the first three questions he was asked were "What is elliptical?"
      What is an orbit?"  and "What is a planet?

 13.  It is true that primitive societies use only rough approximations
      for the known constants of mathematics.  For example, the
      northern tribes of Alaska consider the ratio of the circumference
      to the diameter of a circle to be 3.  But it is not true that the
      value of 3 is called Eskimo pi.  Incidentally, the survival of
      these tribes is dependent upon government assistance, which is
      not always forthcoming.  For example, the Canadian firm of Tait
      and Sons sold a stock of defective compasses to the government at
      half-price, and the government passed them onto the northern
      natives.  Hence the saying among these peoples:  "He who has a
      Tait's is lost."