Only Buff Math

It's math time all the time here. We're here to talk math, feel smart, and laugh at people who don't like math. Elementary School to College, we'll prove stuff, kick problems in the teeth, and laugh at them. Welcome to Only Buff Math. This is NOT a study resource. I mean if you want some help with your homework I'd be happy to help, but I'm not going to make posts and videos where I work through problems and stuff.

[thegreenwolf]

These Hilarious Charts Will Show You Exactly Why Correlation Doesn’t Mean Causation (please do not remove source, thanks.)

[markscherz]

This is magnificent.

[onlybuffmath-blog]

Excellence.

[onlybuffmath-blog]

*After verifying his answer* "Oh, good, I'm not crazy. Some things, even tenure can't protect you from."

Linear Algebra Professor

[onlybuffmath-blog]

Me: Would you consider your girlfriend a part of you?

Dude: Sure, I guess.

Me: [To his girlfriend] And would you consider your boyfriend a part of you?

Chick: Of course!

Me: Then by the power vested in me by set equivalence, I now pronounce you one and the same.

[crookedindifference-deactivated]

17 Equations That Changed The World

[onlybuffmath-blog]

This was an excellent book by an excellent author.

[ilovelucydesi]

[thegigglingmango-blog]

thats so precious omg

[onlybuffmath-blog]

I love how the puppy gives the kid a little kiss afterwards.

[mathprofessorquotes]

I hope to have your exams graded by Monday, but this is on the order of a dream.

Math structures professor (via mathprofessorquotes)

I like that. "On the order of a dream." Kind of poetic.

[onlybuffmath-blog]

An explanation on absence

I don't want to make excuses to my audience, which is 50 of my friends and family members who come to this blog to humor me as I post my mathematical musings online. However, I haven't been posting any original content for a while, and here is why:

Every equation and image I post is done simply by opening Microsoft Paint , creating an image I want to post, selecting it with the select tool, and then pasting it here. This has worked well in the past and it's easy and fast enough that tumblr remains more efficient than Wordpress for my needs.

However, something has happened, either with tumblr or with my computer or with Mozilla Firefox, that puts a lot of strain on the browser after I paste in the image. I don't know why, but it's made my content nearly impossible to post here.

I hope to find a workaround soon.

[junio8]

Holy shit lol. I guess my friend Kae its freezing her butt. Shes in Chicago, but still…

[onlybuffmath-blog]

Greetings from the University of Waterloo, one of Canada's premiere mathematical institutions!

[gammasbox]

y=e^x

[abstrusegoose]

[ppitte]

It has come to my attention that a lot of people haven’t played this game so pay attention:

Grab a friend and tie your hands as the following picture shows

Now try getting yourselves free well maybe not free but apart from each other, so that the ropes aren’t tangled together, without opening the knots or otherwise removing the rope from around your wrists. It is possible.

[ajcrowlor]

im sorry friend but your arm must go

[onlybuffmath-blog]

Is this topologically possible?

[mindfuckmath-deactivated2016062]

Mathematical Impressions: Knot Possible? | Simons Foundation

Is it possible to turn a rubber band - which, topologically speaking, is a closed loop or a zero knot - into a trefoil knot without snipping it? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Click on the link and watch the video to find out how.

[themathkid]

Mind = blown.

[mathprofessorquotes]

It’s not a pretty function, but functions aren’t models.

Dmitri Finkelshtein, Calculus Professor at Swansea University  (via mathprofessorquotes)

Actually a lot of the time they are if you think about it.

[onlybuffmath-blog]

Grace Hopper

So today, Google decided to honor Grace Hopper, a computer scientist who did her work during and after the second World War.

Look at her pose. Just look at that sass. "I'm smarter than you," says her crossed arms, old-lady glasses and unsmiling face. "But I'm also a badass," says her US Navy uniform.

Now not only am I not a computer science student, but I'm also exceedingly stupid, so I don't know very much about how significant her work was. But I can share this:

Apparently she's the one who coined the term "debugging" after finding an actual fucking moth in her computer during her work. If that doesn't  communicate awesome, I don't know what does.

[onlybuffmath-blog]

Thinking in units

I'll admit: when I hear someone citing their weight in kilograms, or their height in centimeters, I have to mentally convert it into pounds and feet. I don't know why. After studying physics and mathematics you'd think I'd have already internalized the beauty and elegance of the metric system.

For some reason when we talk about a more tangible measurement, my mind seems to go to the imperial system by default. I've done 10-mile hikes. I know what that's like. I know my height is 5'7". I know I weigh 130 pounds. I know that my friend is 160 and 6'1". A sudden conversion to the metric system would force me to re-establish all of the statistics I've gathered about my friends. That would require more than just a little bit of dedication.

Oddly enough, I can still think in radians quite easily. I just have to think about a semi-circle. Suddenly the fraction in front of Pi makes sense. In fact I remember one time, I was working on my turns during swim training after a day of math. Coach told me:

"I want you to push off the wall at a 45 degree angle!"

and I almost responded:

"I think you mean Pi over 4."

[onlybuffmath-blog]

Students these days

Instructor: This evaluates to f(u) + C.

Students: Plus CK!

Instructor: No, no, not f(u) + CK. Just C.

[onlybuffmath-blog]

"I don't know why they let me teach this class. So dangerous. Luckily I've only lost 4 students so far."

Professor Mann, after a demonstration failed

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Animals often move in ways engineers find counter-intuitive. Take, for example, the glass knifefish, an undulatory swimmer that controls its motion through wavelike oscillations of its fin. One might expect the knifefish to move its fin so that a single continuous wave moves from one end to the other. Instead two opposing waves move down the knifefish’s fins, one travelling from head to tail and the other travelling from the tail forward. The intersection of these waves is the nodal point, and, by shifting the nodal point fore or aft, the knifefish can hover in place, move forward or swim backward. At first glance, this seems like a wasteful system since a significant portion of each wave cancels the other, but, through mathematical modeling and experiments with a biomimetic robot, the researchers found that the dual-wave locomotion increases both the stability and maneuverability of the fish. (Video credit: N. Cowan et al.; via phys.org)