From buddy Mon Nov  7 19:30:14 1994
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 1994 02:00:25
Subject: engineer, physicist, and mathematician solve problem


An engineer, physicist, and mathematician are all challenged with a
problem: to fry an egg when there is a fire in the house.  The
engineer just grabs a huge bucket of water, runs over to the fire, and
puts it out.  The physicist thinks for a long while, and then measures
a precise amount of water into a container.  He takes it over to the
fire, pours it on, and with the last drop the fire goes out. The
mathematician pores over pencil and paper.  After a few minutes he
goes "Aha!  A solution exists!" and goes back to frying the egg.

Sequel:  This time they are asked simply to fry an egg (no fire).  The
engineer just does it, kludging along; the physicist calculates
carefully and produces a carefully cooked egg; and the mathematician
lights a fire in the corner, and says "I have reduced it to the
previous problem."

---

A physicist and a mathematician setting in a faculty lounge.
Suddenly, the coffee machine catches on fire.  The physicist grabs a
bucket and leaps towards the sink, fills the bucket with water and
puts out the fire.  The second day, the same two sit in the same
lounge.  Again, the coffee machine catches on fire.  This time, the
mathematician stands up, gets a bucket, hands the bucket to the
physicist, thus reducing the problem to a previously solved one.

---

An engineer, a mathematician, and a physicist are staying in three
adjoining cabins at a decrepit old motel.

First the engineer's coffee maker catches fire on the bathroom vanity.
He smells the smoke, wakes up, unplugs it, throws it out the window,
and goes back to sleep.

Later that night the physicist smells smoke too.  He wakes up and sees
that a cigarette butt has set the trash can on fire.  He says to
himself, "Hmm. How does one put out a fire?  One can reduce the
temperature of the fuel below the flash point, isolate the burning
material from oxygen, or both.  This could be accomplished by applying
water."  So he picks up the trash can, puts it in the shower stall,
turns on the water, and, when the fire is out, goes back to sleep.

The mathematician, of course, has been watching all this out the
window.  So later, when he finds that his pipe ashes have set the
bedsheet on fire, he is not in the least taken aback.  He immediately
sees that the problem reduces to one that has already been solved and
goes back to sleep.