Comics I Don’t Understand

The What is WHAT Now???

Cidu Bill on Jan 22nd 2009

I aced high school geometry, and I can’t make sense of this.

Filed in Heart of the City, Mark Tatulli, comic strips, comics, geometry, humor, math | 43 responses so far

43 Responses to “The What is WHAT Now???”

Cidu Bill Jan 22nd 2009 at 02:20 am 1

Actually, I got a 98 in geometry, because that was the highest grade my teacher gave out, regardless of our test scores. “Only God is perfect,” he announced on the first day of class. “Then comes me. So the best any of you can get is a 98.”
Matthew Jan 22nd 2009 at 02:25 am 2

It has just been too many years, Bill. All Heart is reading is that supplementary angles add up to 180 degrees.

Draw a straight horizontal line. Draw another line that branches off from that one in any diagonal or vertical direction. The degree measure of the angle the second line makes on its right plus the degree measure that it makes on its left add up to 180.
Cidu Bill Jan 22nd 2009 at 02:45 am 3

What you say is correct, Matthew. But a straight line is not formed by adjacent angles, by definition. A straight line is a straight line.
Matthew Jan 22nd 2009 at 02:58 am 4

True, Bill, “forming” was poor usage on Tatulli’s part. I suspect that he would claim that he saw it exactly that way in some geometry book, and I further suspect that he can’t tell us the name of the book. We all do get the strip’s point, though, right?
Cornbread Jan 22nd 2009 at 03:38 am 5

I would keep in mind that one does not become a cartoonist by being good at math (Randall Munroe notwithstanding). I suspect that the “important math fact” being technically untrue (or at least poorly worded) does not have anything to do with the intended joke, but I’m also having trouble “getting” the joke. Unless it’s simply that Heart doesn’t think math is a “good thing”.
Ron Jan 22nd 2009 at 03:58 am 6

The math is straightforward. Take a bunch of adjacent angles.
E.g.:
A is 23 degrees
B is 72 degrees
C is 66 degrees
D is 19 degrees
That sums to 180 degrees; thus the external sides
of A and D form a straight line.
That being said, the joke is less straightforward; I
don’t get it.
Adam! Jan 22nd 2009 at 04:40 am 7

Mathew’s got it right: in the drawing he describes, if you label the first angle ∠PRQ and the second angle ∠QRS, then the two adjacent angles form the straight line PS.

Sadly the joke itself seems to be beyond all logical reasoning…
BlueRaja Jan 22nd 2009 at 04:57 am 8

Yes, the math in the comic is correct.
Brent Jan 22nd 2009 at 05:21 am 9

@Cornbread: Yep, the joke here is that the book is incomprehensible to her. It’s just a cheap shot at Mathematics. Many strips do it, because it’s easy to appeal to the innumerate majority.
Sirius73 Jan 22nd 2009 at 06:29 am 10

My initial thought was, that she’s confused because the book describes something intuitively logical (i.e. sum of angles forming a straight line being 180°) in a unnecessary complicated way (as mathematicians usually do).
Rasheed Jan 22nd 2009 at 10:25 am 11

Adjacent angles meaning “angles next to each other sharing a common side”
It follows that if there are a sufficient number of angles to form a straight line, the sum of their inclination in degrees is 180 (or pi radians)

Reminds me of the Wizard of Oz, and further that episode of the Simpsons when Homer found glasses in the restroom.
Its Justme Jan 22nd 2009 at 11:40 am 12

Anyone remember Mattel’s getting in trouble with Barbie saying “Math class is hard!”? I bet the artist gets an earful!
The Ploughman Jan 22nd 2009 at 11:44 am 13

My apologies, this is a bit off the subject (the mathematically inclined seem to have this one solved), but how did it escape my notice that both “Heart in the City” and “Lio” are by the same guy? It makes sense (art-wise) now that I know it, but both comics are so far apart thematically, it’s surprising.
Cleatus Jan 22nd 2009 at 12:49 pm 14

I don’t know how this strip relates to what is going on in the series but it looks like she is wearing a ballet leotard. Could it be a flexibility joke?
Elyrest Jan 22nd 2009 at 01:41 pm 15

Cleatus, Heart always wears a leotard if she is allowed to by her mother.

And I agree that the math is correct. I also agree that just like in math class it is stated so that you have to think about it for it to make sense.
FadedC Jan 22nd 2009 at 02:06 pm 16

I think the joke is just that the book is titled “important math facts” and is full of tedious bits of math trivia like the one she quoted. Even as someone who is really good at math I wouldn’t exactly want to read through a book like that for light reading.
Jon88 Jan 22nd 2009 at 02:20 pm 17

The math homework storyline started on 1/12. Today, she’s finally sitting down to work, and after one sentence, she’s had enough. Context is key.
Lindsay Jan 22nd 2009 at 02:35 pm 18

Brent (and Cornbread), I know what you mean about appealing to the “innumerate majority”… but man, does it bug me that he’s choosing to have a GIRL deliver the line about too much math being a bad thing. Way to start her at an early age.

So now it’s “multi-layered;” it goes from a joke about poorly-worded geometry theorems to a joke about girls and math.

Randall Munroe nailed it a while back:
http://xkcd.com/385/
Mark in Boston Jan 22nd 2009 at 03:20 pm 19

A straight line CAN be formed by adjacent angles. We would have fierce arguments about things like this in math class. People would agree that 1/3 times 3 equals 1, but argue endlessly that 0.99999….. (i.e. 0.333333….. times 3) can’t possibly be 1 even with an infinite number of nines. It’s just got to be a tiny bit less than 1, they’d say.
Cidu Bill Jan 22nd 2009 at 03:56 pm 20

Well no, a straight line CAN’T be formed by adjacent angles. The adjacent angles can, in the end, lead you from the same “point a to point b” that a straight line will, but that doesn’t make it a straight line. A straight line is a straight line, not a series of zig-zags.
Bill Jan 22nd 2009 at 04:02 pm 21

I don’t think that you’d get zig-zags if the angles are actully adjacent. You’d get a straight line with at least one other line branching out from the middle. The number of “extra” lines would be one less than the number of adjacent angles. Adjacent angles, by definition, have their point at the same location.
Bill Jan 22nd 2009 at 04:04 pm 22

And here is a good website on the subject:
http://library.thinkquest.org/2647/geometry/angle/measure.htm
Michael Jan 22nd 2009 at 04:21 pm 23

This was a big LOL for me. I have an engineering degree but math certainly isn’t one of my favorite things. I totally empathize with the girl.
Brent Jan 22nd 2009 at 05:50 pm 24

@Cidu Bill: You appear to be confused about what adjacent angles are. Adjacent angles are like adjacent pieces of pie in a pie plate… if you have half a pie worth of pieces (ie the edge is straight) you have 180 degrees of pie.

@Sirius73: It’s not so much that it’s made complicated… what it is is being specific. This may seem silly for the initial simple concepts, but a couple of classes later you’re using those ideas in ways that aren’t so simple or clear… and where knowing what the terms mean exactly becomes crucial. For example, this piece of information can be used to show that the angles of a triangle add to 180 degrees (and those angles are not so nicely placed).
David N Jan 23rd 2009 at 12:07 am 25

@Mark in Boston - it is true that the straight line is a little less than 1. For instance, when Brent here sliced up his 180 degrees of pie a little bit got stuck on the knife.

Math imitates life.
Michael Jan 23rd 2009 at 12:24 am 26

Thank you David and Mark! I always had a problem in calculus, probability and statistics classes because I couldn’t accept that *sometimes* .99999 (repeating) equals 1… and sometimes it doesn’t. Now I know that what I wasn’t taking into account was the fact that sometimes a bit of pie gets stuck on the knife! If only I could have consulted with you guys when I was in college, it would eliminated a lot of my frustration with math.
The Ploughman Jan 23rd 2009 at 11:42 am 27

Wait, how did we get onto pi? I thought that only involved circles.

(Had to be said)
eeyore19 Jan 23rd 2009 at 11:46 am 28

If pi only involves circles, why do I keep hearing people saying “pi are square”?
Dan Jan 23rd 2009 at 01:36 pm 29

|
|
|
________________

There! Two adjacent angles(pretend the vertical goes all the way to the horizontal). Two 90 deg angles, back to back, hence a 180 deg angle, i.e., a line.
Rasheed Jan 23rd 2009 at 02:49 pm 30

Take half a round pizza. One side is a straight line. Cut up this half into however many slices you want, or varying radius you want, as long as you always cut to the center. The centerpoint is the commonality of all the angles, and your pizza slices add up to a straight line.
Derek Jan 23rd 2009 at 03:27 pm 31

Bill, the phrase “The sum of adjacent angles forming a straight line is 180º” is straight out of a maths textbook. See http://www.mathsteacher.com.au/year8/ch09_geometry/01_geom/geom.htm
Todd Jan 23rd 2009 at 05:28 pm 32

Is that supplementary or complementary?

It’s an “I hate math” cartoon. If the line is accurate, it would be a complete surprise to me.
Brent Jan 24th 2009 at 04:02 am 33

@The Ploughman: 180 degrees equals pi radians.
This guy I know Jan 24th 2009 at 04:28 pm 34

@ Brent:
And 360 degrees is one pie.

…but one pie is two pi. So even if I take a whole pi, there is still some pie remaining. Thus there is always enough pie for everyone.
Rainey Jan 25th 2009 at 07:28 pm 35

@Lindsay: I think the reason that the artist chose to have a girl deliver the line about too much math not being a good thing has more to do with this girl being the main character of the strip than with any “girls are bad at math” mentality.
Joss Jan 25th 2009 at 11:22 pm 36

Wow, this strip has stirred up the most comments in quite a while.
Jeff S. Jan 26th 2009 at 12:35 pm 37

If this were Foxtrot, we would KNOW the math is correct! But of course, Jason wouldn’t deliver the same punchline, as he loves math.
ty Jan 26th 2009 at 02:59 pm 38

For a variation on the “math is hard” joke, check out this sunday’s Foxtrot. (Not that it’s a new one - I first heard it in a British schoolroom comedy from the early 70’s. The Vinnie Bobarino-type character couldn’t figure out a simple math problem, but could rattle off the odds and pay-out at the track. Context is verything.)
Mark in Boston Feb 4th 2009 at 07:25 pm 39

“No force on earth, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line that shall be absolutely straight.” — Whewell.
Matthew Feb 4th 2009 at 09:08 pm 40

That’s the last line of a short story by Guy Davenport, Mark, and it’s an A-B-B-A quatrain:

No force on Earth, however great,
Can stretch a cord, however fine,
Into a horizontal line,
That shall be absolutely straight.
Kevin A Aug 26th 2009 at 01:25 pm 41

@CIDU Bill - Note this quote from the web page that you cited:
“A straight angle is an angle that measures exactly 180 degrees. Thus the name - the two rays form a straight line.”
Of course, it’s now 7 months later and the words “form a straight line” may have been added to this particular site since then.

Geometry has to have theorems (or definitions, if that’s what this one is) like the one Heart was reading, no matter how intuitive they are, in order to build construction proofs.

In Geometry, a “straight line” extends infinitely in 2 directions. A straight line cannot be constructed nor defined without rays because it needs, at minimum, a particular point and direction, and that is a ray. A straight line has no point more defining than any other point on it; a “straight line” is “described” by a point and one of its two directions (or by 2 points).

The thing drawn between 2 points is a “straight line segment”, and is not related to Heart’s quote. It’s an unfortunate aspect of English and other languages that a new word wasn’t created for “straight line” since we mostly deal with “straight line segments” in our life, and isn’t that phrase too long for something so common? (And isn’t life too short to keep track of which of your friends are math geeks when having a dinner conversation?)

===

I’m not sure about whether this should be called a “Math Fact”. And I agree with others here that the statement is sort of backwards (and I’m not referring to the complex grammar).
Grant Aug 28th 2009 at 12:16 pm 42

Regarding Cibu Bills comment #3 about straight lines. Straight lines are formed by to opposite rays. There is no such thing as a true straight line.
Grant Aug 28th 2009 at 12:17 pm 43

Sorry TWO opposite rays