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Double Entendres in Physics

By drorzel on April 14, 2006.

RPM is dropping his Double Entendre Fridays, which threatens to cut off the world supply of really dorky sex jokes. But never fear, I'm here to pick it up with a physics version!

Back when I was a lowly undergrad, I was the TA for an optics lab section, and was helping some students to adjust a Michelson interferometer. One of them made some comment about being amazed that I could make such minute adjustments to the alignment of one of the mirrors (done by turning an 80-pitch screw very, very slowly), and the professor running the class (who was one of my honors thesis advisors that year) said:

(Dorky sex joke below the fold:)

"There's nothing like a thesis in laser work to give a man a fine touch on a screw."

And, really, that's about as good as it gets for double entendres in physics... I know, I know, we should've kept FrinkTank around...

Tags
Physics
silliness

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Sex jokes are a great way to get mentioned in the Daily Zeigeist. By the way, congrats to the Union baseball team for switching to striped stirrups (in case you didn't know). Have you guys dropped hockey yet?

I got an EE joke. When I pointed out I'd been married to 2 electrical engineers (one of Jordin's degrees is in EE) Jordin remarked, "In series however, not parallel."

I'll be here all week.

MKK

Not quite a double entendre, but a true story...

A prof. was lecturing about gravity using calculus. Instead of "infinitesmal piece of mass," he said "infinitesmal piece of ass."

He realized what he'd said, turned to a student and said "I didn't say mass, did I?", turned bright red, and sat down.

My undergrad QM prof made the analogy that learning physics by watching someone derive equations on the board is a little like learning sex by watching porn. "At some point you just have to get your hands dirty" were his exact words.

By Frumious B. (not verified) on 14 Apr 2006 #permalink