Here’s one of my favourite maths puns.
What’s yellow and equivalent to the axiom of choice?
Zorn’s Lemon!!!!!!!!
I like it because it’s a real groaner, but to even begin to see what it’s punning on you have to know some pretty obscure facts about set theory. That makes it an ideal maths pun.
Maths puns abound (both upper and lower). Most of the time they make your eyes roll so badly that gimbal lock becomes a consideration, but a real corker makes all the years of mathematical study worthwhile.
Since the year is about to end, we thought it’d be a fun idea to collect some new maths puns, and run a quick competition to find 2014’s best offering (or the local maxipun at 2014, as we like to call it).
The rules are simple: tell us a pun, give a citation if it’s not your own work, and give us a way of identifying you in case you win. We’re looking for new puns, so anything seen in the likes of Dundes et al. is obviously off-limits.
We’ll keep the submissions form open until Friday the 19th of December, and then we’ll pick a winner and publish the results some time before the new year. The winning entry will, geography allowing, receive a fabulous prize of $\approx \epsilon$ value.
And so, without further ado: get punning!
(if that form doesn’t load for any reason, load it directly by clicking here)