I don't want to hire any wise-ass New Yorker, the foreman thought, so he made up a test ...
hoping that Vincenzo wouldn't be able to answer the questions, and he'd be able to refuse him the job without getting into a dispute.
"Widout numbiz?" Vinny says. "Dat's easy," and he proceeds to draw 3 trees.
"What's this?" the boss asks. The New Yorker replies,
"Ain't you got no brains?" Replied Viiny: "Tree 'n Tree 'n Tree makes nine. Faghedaboutit......"
"Fair enough," says the Boss. "Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time use the number 99."
Vinny stares into space for a minute, then picks up the picture he has drawn and makes a smudge on each tree. "Dare ya go, Buddy."
The Boss scratches his head and says, "How on earth do you get that to represent 99?"
Vinny says "Each a da tree's is dirty now! So it's dirty tree 'n dirty tree 'n dirty tree, dat's 99".
The Boss is getting worried he's going to have to hire the New Yorker, so he says, "All right, last question. Same rules but this time use 100."
Vinny stares into space again, then picks up the picture once again, makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, "Dare ya go, Mac, a hunnert."
The Boss looks at the picture for a moment and says, "You must be nuts if you think that represents 100!"
Vinny leans forward and points to the marks at the base of the trees. "A little doggie comes along and does his business at each of dem trees, so now ya got dirty tree an' a turd, dirty tree an' a turd, dirty tree an'a turd which makes one hundred. ...
..... Bada boom, bada bing. ........ When do I start the job?"
No, no, no. 1 million microphones is a phone; 1 trillion microphones is a megaphone. (US trillion, of course; in British terminology, it would be one billion microphones.) Keeping your prefixes straight is important.
On the subject of the milli-Helen, see this article.
For other useful (?) units of measurement, see this Wikipedia article (I particularly like the attoparsec/microfortnight) or this page (where we find that the definition of "ohm" is "where the art is").
A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were all given a red rubber ball and told to find the volume. The mathematican carefully measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral. The physicist filled a beaker with water, put the ball in the water, and measured the total displacement. The engineer looked up the model and serial numbers in his red-rubber-ball table.
1 trillion vampires: 1 terabyte (terror-bite, get it?)
ReplyDeleteI made that up myself
ReplyDeleteBut one million microphones is only one phone. It takes 10^12 microphones to make a megaphone.
ReplyDeleteVery nice, Carolyn and Stephanie!
ReplyDeleteA million dental X-rays: Megabites
ReplyDeleteThis is harder than it looks.
hi Joanne!
ReplyDeletethanks for posting!
wow, I love this new group blog!
oh gosh - I'm going to have to post the constructivist math jokes guy.
ReplyDeleteLinda Moran gave me the link.
I don't want to hire any wise-ass New Yorker, the foreman thought, so he made up a test ...
ReplyDeletehoping that Vincenzo wouldn't be able to answer the questions, and he'd be able to refuse him the job without getting into a dispute.
"Widout numbiz?" Vinny says. "Dat's easy," and he proceeds to draw 3 trees.
"What's this?" the boss asks. The New Yorker replies,
"Ain't you got no brains?" Replied Viiny: "Tree 'n Tree 'n Tree makes nine. Faghedaboutit......"
"Fair enough," says the Boss. "Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time use the number 99."
Vinny stares into space for a minute, then picks up the picture he has drawn and makes a smudge on each tree. "Dare ya go, Buddy."
The Boss scratches his head and says, "How on earth do you get that to represent 99?"
Vinny says "Each a da tree's is dirty now! So it's dirty tree 'n dirty tree 'n dirty tree, dat's 99".
The Boss is getting worried he's going to have to hire the New Yorker, so he says, "All right, last question. Same rules but this time use 100."
Vinny stares into space again, then picks up the picture once again, makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, "Dare ya go, Mac, a hunnert."
The Boss looks at the picture for a moment and says, "You must be nuts if you think that represents 100!"
Vinny leans forward and points to the marks at the base of the trees. "A little doggie comes along and does his business at each of dem trees, so now ya got dirty tree an' a turd, dirty tree an' a turd, dirty tree an'a turd which makes one hundred. ...
..... Bada boom, bada bing. ........ When do I start the job?"
1 milliHelen (mH) = a face that would launch a single ship.
ReplyDeleteI wish I can remember where I got that one from.
"1 million microphones: 1 megaphone"
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no. 1 million microphones is a phone; 1 trillion microphones is a megaphone. (US trillion, of course; in British terminology, it would be one billion microphones.) Keeping your prefixes straight is important.
On the subject of the milli-Helen, see this article.
For other useful (?) units of measurement, see this Wikipedia article (I particularly like the attoparsec/microfortnight) or this page (where we find that the definition of "ohm" is "where the art is").
And my contribution?
100 decibels is a modestly equipped cathedral.
Oops, I missed the fact that Stephanie has already noted my correction. My apologies and a hat tip.
ReplyDeleteYes, very subtle!
ReplyDeleteLOL!
A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were all given a red rubber ball and told to find the volume. The mathematican carefully measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral. The physicist filled a beaker with water, put the ball in the water, and measured the total displacement. The engineer looked up the model and serial numbers in his red-rubber-ball table.
ReplyDelete