There were three blokes:
a mathematician, a physicist and an engineer, who were told that they were to stand at one end of a long corridor, with an attractive naked woman at the other end. The deal was that they could approach the woman by travelling towards her a distance of half their current distance from her, and repeating this each time. So if they started 12m away, the first leg would be 6m, then 3m and so on. Once they reached the woman, they could partake of whatever activities they felt like with this (apparently very accommodating) lady.

So the mathematician went first. He did a calculation and worked out a formula, then came to the conclusion that although he would approach the woman asymptotically, he'd never actually reach her. So on that basis, he decided it would be a waste of time to try.

The physicist took the mathematician's result, and decided to prove it by experiment. So off he went, marking points on a graph each time, and after a few iterations had decided that he had an accurate fit of experimental data to theory, and thus came to the same conclusion as the mathematician. He also decided it would be a waste of time.

The engineer's turn came. He did a quick calculation on the back of an envelope, then decided to go for it as he realised that within a few repetitions he'd be close enough for all practical purposes.



It's a pity I'm a physicist... :-(
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 28 May 2009, 10:54, Reply)