3 ms·

There's this joke in applied math departments that the best way to spook a pure mathematician is to whisper in his ear "We've found an use for your theorem..."

• nonbel 9y ago
  "We've found an use for your theorem..." I'd think that would be more likely to spook the English department.
  • dredmorbius 9y ago
    Rhetoric.
    • dredmorbius 9y ago
      So ... this is a thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric
• wolfgke 9y ago
  I found an application for a theorem that was originally proved by the authors because for its interesting geometrical meaning. One of the authors who I talked to really liked my application. So in my impression pure mathematician might not be motivated by applications, but if other people find cool applications, they typically love it.
  • smilliken 9y ago
    There's another traditional joke among pure mathematicians: as hard as we resist, every theorem will eventually find its way to practical application. More of an aphorism than a joke, but we'd all laugh.
  • pmiller2 9y ago
    Is there a link to a paper? :)