# Can someone explain this math fail joke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748 "2011-09-09T19:24:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/21 "2011-09-10T07:37:39Z")
Read the next two posts in the blog. The blog does not appear to be about math puzzles or quizzes. It appears to be about the trials and tribulations of being a math professor. The [next post](http://math-fail.com/2011/08/a-mathematician%E2%80%99s-survival-guide.html) is saying not to tell anyone you are a math professor or all they will talk about is how they hated high school algebra. The [post after that](http://math-fail.com/2011/08/mind-calculating-spiked-math-comic.html) is about a new fad of kids doing arithmetic in their heads (“mind calculation”) instead of using calculators. An exasperated teacher is quoted as saying “The school has just recently spent thousands of dollars on brand new Casio FX-9860GII’s and now they are going to waste. I don’t care if kids ‘mind calculate’ in their free time, but when they are in my classroom they damn well better be using those Casios!” I only read those three articles, but I am not seeing a pattern of failure-to-use-math-properly jokes in the blog. It’s more about the life of a mathematician. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/22 "2011-09-10T07:47:43Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I find this explanation (that they’re just laughing at the idea of requesting a rescheduled exam) very unsatisfying. I’m with you. The Prof might have thought this funny enough for “LMAO” but surely not enough for the screenshot/upload. What are we missing? On a side-note, it is unfortunate that 12:30 AM comes before 11:30 AM, but I can deal with it. What annoys me is a time shown as 12:00 AM – if you’re too lazy to write Midnight, can’t you avoid ambiguity, at the cost of my arriving a minute late, by writing 12:01 AM ? (Nevermind the strangeness of a life-style where Midnight dates are as likely as Noon dates. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/23 "2011-09-10T08:05:25Z")
Of course, if they want to have the test on Friday the 30th, that means they’re lumping the _professor_ with a whole bundle of work on Halloween itself. What, professors aren’t allowed to go partying? ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/24 "2011-09-10T12:13:45Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Of course, if they want to have the test on Friday the 30th, that means they’re lumping the _professor_ with a whole bundle of work on Halloween itself. > > What, professors aren’t allowed to go partying? In my experience, professors can (sometimes) take a while to grade and return tests. One or two more days because of time lost to partying and recovering wouldn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/25 "2011-09-10T12:32:00Z")
The website doesn’t stick to jokes that are exclusively numeric and purely math. Some jokes are just about education, college, etc. So, it’s ok to go ahead and see the humor in the student requesting the date be moved because of Halloween. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/26 "2011-09-11T00:21:13Z")
From my experience in college as both a student and as a teacher, I see nothing remarkable in a student requesting that a test be moved to before a holiday weekend rather than after. The response might well be “no, we’re sticking to the schedule”, but the request itself is not unreasonable. It _would_ be unreasonable to ask that on the Thursday right before, but from the datestamps, the student asked three weeks ahead of time. Heck, I’d kill to have more students like that, who think about things that far in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/27 "2011-09-11T02:02:18Z")
> [@bashere](#): > > If I were a gambling man, I would suggest that the answer has to do with the line “realistically speaking”, and the fact that dates are written in a manner similar to division. I believe 11/1 is a real number, but that math was a long time ago. > [@Weedy](#): > > The Friday would have been 10/30, but I think that is a real number as well. It does seem like the joke should be something math related. I don’t understand this whole thread. You seem to be reading something different than what I’m reading. I do not see “11/1” anywhere on that link. Why are people doing calculations on the fractions “11/1” and “10/30”? The only dates that I see are these:[ul] [li]I see two messages, both stamped with the date “Thursday, October 8, 2009”[/li][li]The first message mentions “the Monday after Halloween” twice[/li][li]The first message mentions “the previous Friday” once[/li][li]The second message does not mention any dates in the text section[/li][/ul] Where do you people see any slash marks? Where do you see any potential for a math joke (other than it appearing on a board named “Math Fail”)? ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/28 "2011-09-11T03:14:28Z")
Oh, OK, I thought Math Fail was the title of the post, not the name of the blog. That changes things. The dates are just the dates of the Monday after, and the Friday before Halloween in 2009. Only significant if you are desperately seeking mathematical content to justify the misinterpreted blog name. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/29 "2011-09-11T03:20:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > From my experience in college as both a student and as a teacher, I see nothing remarkable in a student requesting that a test be moved to before a holiday weekend rather than after. Halloween is not a holiday. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/30 "2011-09-11T03:22:53Z")
I see the joke as just a professor rightly laughing in the face of some douchebag trying to get him to adjust his exam schedule to acommodate the drinking schedule of said douchebag. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/31 "2011-09-11T04:43:02Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Halloween is not a holiday. At least in the US, it’s not a Public Holiday that people commonly get off work and on which major institutions are closed, but it’s a holiday nonetheless. It has a big secular pop-culture impact, and it is a religious holiday for at least some Christians (All-Hallows-Eve) and many or most Neo-Pagans (Samhain). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/32 "2011-09-11T04:53:35Z")
It’s not a “holiday” or a “holiday weekend” in any sense that those words would be used in a college context. There’s no day off. There’s nothing to “observe,” and there’s no reason that this kid wanted to move the exam other than to facilitate his drinking plans. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/33 "2011-09-11T05:44:02Z")
It’s a holiday, just not a very important one. Not sure what else you’d call it when a bunch of people all over the place celebrate the same general thing on the same day each year in generally similar ways. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/34 "2011-09-13T20:47:11Z")
So does anyone have an answer to this question that \*doesn’t \*hinge on their \*personal \*(IMHO, not GQ) opinion about drinking? ( **Dio** , I’m looking in your direction.) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/35 "2011-09-13T21:31:09Z")
I didn’t express an opinion about drinking. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/36 "2011-09-13T21:44:29Z")
I don’t think it hinges on your personal opinion on drinking to understand that a Professor would find it laughable that he is asked to re-arrange the schedule to accommodate students like that ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/37 "2011-09-13T21:44:38Z")
What immediately occurred to me—and I’m a college math professor myself at present—is that any student trying to argue that his classmates in general would prefer taking an exam on the previous Friday rather than the following Monday must be suffering from serious cranio-rectal inversion. Individual students occasionally ask to take a test early because their individual schedules “require” it, but IME a class as a whole never _never_ **NEVER** wants to have a test earlier rather than later. If a student in any of my classes publicly advocated moving up a scheduled exam from a Monday to the preceding Friday, I’d expect to see a couple of other students nodding in agreement, another couple of students shrugging, and the remaining 90% of the class ready to rip him limb from limb. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/38 "2011-09-13T21:46:28Z")
If you look at the other articles, and the subtitle, math fail is only one of the topics, and math humor seems to be the broader theme. I don’t think there is any math error here, it’s just funny that the student wants to move the exam so it isn’t right after a holiday weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Aqua\_regis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d78d45/32.png) [@Aqua\_regis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aqua_regis)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/39 "2011-09-13T21:49:56Z")
English is not my first language, but the email seems rather weirdly written to me, “_even_ prefer (…) _than_ (…)” and “just speaking realistically”, although the Prof’s reaction still doesn’t seem entirely warranted. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748/40 "2011-09-13T21:56:42Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > If a student in any of my classes publicly advocated moving up a scheduled exam from a Monday to the preceding Friday, I’d expect to see a couple of other students nodding in agreement, another couple of students shrugging, and the remaining 90% of the class ready to rip him limb from limb. In general, sure, but I think in this case, moving the exam to before Halloween, many would want to do that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-this-math-fail-joke/595748.md?page=3)