Nathan's Notes

Wherein your Host Recounts a Math Joke

A herpetologist grew frustrated while trying to mate two endangered snakes. After months of work she threw up her hands and exclaimed, “Nothing I’ve tried will get these snakes to breed!” One of the snakes looked up and said to her, “you could try dimming the lights.” The herpetologist was surprised at the talking snake but turned down the lights anyway.

A few weeks later, the snakes had still not yet mated and the herpetologist asked them: “I turned down the lights, is there anything else you need?” The second snake said, “Dimming the lights helped, but it still isn’t very romantic – could you put on some good music?” So the herpetologist got a Barry White album from her car and played some sweet soulful tunes near their cage.

A few weeks later, the snakes had still not yet mated and the herpetologist asked: “I turned down the lights and put on some romantic music, why aren’t you breeding?” The first snake said: “Well, it might seem silly, but back in our native jungle we had a coffee table made of wood that we really liked. If you built a table just like that in our cage, it would probably help.”

So the herpetologist got some logs and built the table and left it in the cage. A few weeks later she came back and there were hundreds of baby snakes. This story just goes to show that “with a log table even an adder can multiply.”

log(ab)=log(a)+log(b)

exp(log(a)+log(b))=ab

Labels: ICPSR, jokes