2013-02-01
Original: 2013-02-01 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
An older professor with gray hair, a beard, and glasses stands at a green chalkboard, gesturing toward equations he has written.
Professor: "It's called a Fourier transform when you take a number and convert it to the base system where it will have more fours, thus making it 'Fourier.' If you pick the base with the most fours, the number is said to be 'Fouriest.'"
On the chalkboard:
624 (base 10) → 1160 (base 8)
↓
440 (base 12)
↓
4444 (base 5) ✓
Caption (below panel): Teaching math was way more fun after tenure.
Votey:
The professor leans in, speaking.
Professor: "Tomorrow, we discuss how gamma functions can give you melanoma."
An older professor with gray hair, a beard, and glasses stands at a green chalkboard, gesturing toward equations he has written.
Professor: "It's called a Fourier transform when you take a number and convert it to the base system where it will have more fours, thus making it 'Fourier.' If you pick the base with the most fours, the number is said to be 'Fouriest.'"
On the chalkboard:
624 (base 10) → 1160 (base 8)
↓
440 (base 12)
↓
4444 (base 5) ✓
Caption (below panel): Teaching math was way more fun after tenure.
Votey:
The professor leans in, speaking.
Professor: "Tomorrow, we discuss how gamma functions can give you melanoma."
Alt text
An older professor with gray hair, a beard, and glasses stands at a green chalkboard gesturing at a chain of equations. He says: "It's called a Fourier transform when you take a number and convert it to the base system where it will have more fours, thus making it 'Fourier.' If you pick the base with the most fours, the number is said to be 'Fouriest.'" The chalkboard shows the number 624 in base 10 being converted down through bases: 1160 in base 8, then 440 in base 12, then 4444 in base 5 (marked with a checkmark as the 'fouriest'). The pun riffs on the names of the mathematicians Fourier and Gamma functions rather than the actual Fourier transform. Caption below: "Teaching math was way more fun after tenure." Votey: the professor leans in and adds, "Tomorrow, we discuss how gamma functions can give you melanoma."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.