A Mathematical Cow Joke.

A math joke from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon:

"There are three men on a train. One of them is an economist and one of them is a logician and one of them is a mathematician.

And they have just crossed the border into Scotland (I don't know why they are going to Scotland) and they see a brown cow standing in a field from the window of the train (and the cow is standing parallel to the train).

And the economist says, 'Look, the cows in Scotland are brown.' And the logician says, 'No. There are cows in Scotland of which at least one is brown.' And the mathematician says, 'No. There is at least one cow in Scotland, of which one side appears to be brown.'

Never argue with a mathematician!Link


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See also Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" where Lazarus Long makes a point by asking one of his assistants `What color is that house up the hill` to which she replies `This side appears to be white.`
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being a reformed mathematician, i must say that my colleagues were often amusing, but tenaciously annoying. The amusing part was incidental and the annoying part was quite consistent.
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My husband told me a variation of this joke that pokes fun at philosphers. The third guy who claimed that at least one cow in Scotland was brown on one side was a philospher of some stripe (probably analytical, not sure.)
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