# Can those brilliant professor types really look at those long ass equations on the whiteboard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742 "2013-07-17T11:43:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742/61 "2014-01-13T04:15:25Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > I’m not seeing the proper cartoon. I get a cartoon about a big ass-car. I should leave the zombie alone. I should leave the zombie alone. I should leave the zombie alone. I should leave the zombie alone. Nuts. The cartoon shows that you can totally change the meaning of a sentence by changing the location of a “-” slightly. It’s close to the wife changing one sign. ---
**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:** [January 13, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742/62 "2014-01-13T16:59:35Z")
Actually, I think that posting that cartoon was just a riff on the thread title. Instead of “long-ass equations”, it’s humorous to think of the thread as being about “long ass-equations”. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742/63 "2014-01-13T19:55:34Z")
In one of my advanced physics classes (probably thermo or something like that), the prof was writing this long-ass equation on the board and we were furiously copying it down while, at the same time, trying to understand what the hell it al meant when the prof abruptly stopped, turned towards us and said: “This must all be rather surprising for those of you who were tricked into majoring in physics by pendulums and inclined planes.” It was pretty funny at the time-- there were only about 10 of us in the class, and he knew we were all physics majors. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742/64 "2014-01-14T06:00:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Actually, I think that posting that cartoon was just a riff on the thread title. Instead of “long-ass equations”, it’s humorous to think of the thread as being about “long ass-equations”. Just one of the fundamental axioms of ass algebra, that X-ass Y = X ass-Y for all X, Y. (Actually not, maybe. The xkcd cartoon was pointing out the strange results that can arise from this transformation.) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2016, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742/65 "2016-09-02T19:36:24Z")
I want to thank all of you, even the first few posters, who may have died or gone to Pinterest since the thread started. I understood only handfuls (handsful?) of it, but I soldiered on regardless. It was quite entertaining, even to a non-mathy galoot who never made it past plane geometry and ground to a halt halfway through HS algebra. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742/66 "2016-09-03T14:03:16Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Just one of the fundamental axioms of ass algebra, that X-ass Y = X ass-Y for all X, Y. > > (Actually not, maybe. The xkcd cartoon was pointing out the strange results that can arise from this transformation.) And can you plot it by giving the coordinates on the X-asskiss and Y-asskiss? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742/67 "2016-09-03T14:17:10Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > holy shit :eek: > > I have a block against reading[IPA language notations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet), I couldn’t figure out word one if it meant my life and that of everybody hold dear. Yeah, I don’t believe that. If you can figure out how to read English, you can figure out IPA with far less motivation than death hanging over your and your family’s heads. If you really want to learn, you are welcome to ask me. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742/68 "2016-09-03T14:38:32Z")
\*\*2x = y + A. See spot run.\*\* If you have not problem reading either of those, then you have no problem with an equation that has 10 or 20 times the number of parts just as you have no problem reading _War and Peace_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-those-brilliant-professor-types-really-look-at-those-long-ass-equations-on-the-whiteboard/663742.md?page=3)