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Returning from Canada back in the 90's, I was asked what I had been doing there. "Attending a conference on computational geometry." "What's that?" Pause for
by everybodyknows 10y ago
Returning from Canada back in the 90's, I was asked what I had been doing there.
"Attending a conference on computational geometry."
"What's that?"
Pause for thought -- several seconds.
"Applying computers to solving problems in geometry."
This got me waved in. Co-workers told of the encounter later on proposed an alternative reply: "You wouldn't understand." Given the tone of the agent, those might have been very costly words.
- cperciva 10y agoCould have been worse. If you had been at a conference on algebraic geometry, you might have been the mathematician who started talking about blowing up points on the plane while in the security line up...
- Frogolocalypse 10y agoAnd algebra is an arabic word after all. No good can come of that.
- pjc50 10y agoYou can do algebra on a plane, but don't do algebra on an aircraft: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/05/07/ivy-league-economist-interrogated-for-doing-math-on-american-airlines-flight/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/05/07/iv... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/07/italian-mathematician-taken-off-flight-after-fellow-passenger-al/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/07/italian-mathemati...
- petee 10y agoAfter watching too many episodes of border patrol-like shows, I agree that it would be a very bad route to take: If you are demeaning, they'll only dig deeper; if they "don't understand" they _will_ find someone who does, or take your phone and call your boss to find out.