Math Humor

Us math people have a funny sense of humor.

In my multivariable calculus class the other week we were talking about derivatives of vectors. Our teacher was pointing out that we could call them anything. So he called one Bob and Joe and John (or something like that). 

When you take the derivative of a function r, we call the new function r' or "r prime."

So he took the derivative of his three functions Bob, Joe and John and said "now we have Bob prime and Joe prime and.." He paused and everyone knew what he was thinking.

He went back to the original functions and changed the last one's name to "optimus."

Get it?

The other day I had someone sit by me and he asked about my name. He's married and has kids so maybe he was thinking of stealing it. He asked me where it came from and I started to tell him that my grandma's name is Lillian so my mom took that and made it Lilia.
"My mom took it and..."
Guy: "She took the derivative of it."
We both laughed like the nerds we are.
I guess you could say that she took the derivative of Lillian in respect to n. :)