A folklorist and a physicist analyze jokes by and about mathematicians.

the pdf is here: http://www.ams.org/notices/200501/fea-dundes.pdf

--timball

Foolproof: A Sampling of Mathematical Folk Humor

]
] Recently in the magazine Nature, we proposed a
] mathematical model to calculate and classify all possible
] tie knots. Of the 85 found, we duly predicted the four
] knots in widespread use (see below) and further
] introduced nine new aesthetic ones.

I ran across this page while googling for "how to tie a necktie" (as a prototypical geek I can barely tie a tie and have been feeling some pressure at work to wear one). Interestingly they have several -new- methods for tying ties. So right now I'm wearing a new Tommy Hilfiger tie w/ a 7,2 slim knot!

Theory of Tie Knots

Topological study of the recycle symbol. It's not much, but it's yet another reminder that even the most banal icons of daily life are tied to some cute little math nerd.

Math Trek : Recycling Topology, Science News Online, April 26, 2003

Third consecutive day of just general science/math goodness links... wolfram.com are the people who write and sell the world renown computational algebra system Mathematica (http://www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica). Most of the people who work on mathematica started out as either physicists or mathematicians.

Mathworld is a great place to poke around and learn math in a very "quick reference" way. Think of mathworld as a nice starting point). It also has nice general (and not so general) explination/definitions of physics terms and overviews historical physics experiments.

Did I also mention it has lots and lots of perdy Mathematica rendered eyecandy?

MathWorld