Okay, maths boy, why is the joke funny?
And the reason why I "go look" at XKCD is because it can be quite good sometimes.
(__, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 10:02, archived)

It's funny, because I've actually been known to do that in an exam.
I know the "answer", but I can't remember the whole proof, so I start proving what I can, and then try and fit them all together.

We laugh because it's funny, we laugh because it's true...
( The Teviot Moose major 5th., Mon 28 Jun 2010, 10:10, archived)

hahahahahahahaha bumsex with your mum

(__, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 10:12, archived)

Erm
Isn't the point that the square root symbol suddenly turns into a long-division symbol? And that it still works out to the correct answer?

Just saying, like.
( Flapjack I spay a little mare for you, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 10:42, archived)

Not that it's not a bit shit,
mind you.
( Flapjack I spay a little mare for you, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 10:43, archived)

As I said, it raised a wry smile.
I didn't actually look too closely at the content...
( The Teviot Moose major 5th., Mon 28 Jun 2010, 10:47, archived)

yeah, that's the point
that's the bit where the forwards and backwards proofs converge where, normally, the student has to try and make it look like it meets in the desperate hope that the person marking just looks at the answer and skims the proof and misses the cheat.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 11:10, archived)

because that's how people solve problems sometimes.
The guy who does it is a mathematician. Therefore there will be some maths comedy. deal with it.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 10:18, archived)