# Calvin and Hobbes and math

Somebody had the brilliant idea of collecting all of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips that were related to math: http://www.comicmath.com/calvin-and-hobbes-math-comics.html

# The Pythagorean theorem to five decimal places

Piers Morgan, mathematician extraordinaire:

I don’t know how to begin describing how his attempt at insulting the intelligence of one of the Love Island evictees went horribly wrong.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 172): Clement Clarke Moore

Let $C$ be the set of all creatures, let $H(x)$ be the proposition “$x$ is in the house,” and let $S(x)$ be the proposition “$x$ is stirring.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall x \in C (H(x) \Rightarrow \lnot S(x))$.

Of course, this matches the first two lines of one of the most popular poems in the English language.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 171): Hunter Hayes

Let $P$ be the set of all people, and let $H(x,y)$ be the proposition “$x$ has $y$.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall x \in P (x \ne I \Rightarrow \exists y \in P(H(x,y)) \land \forall y \in P (\lnot H(I,y))$.

This matches the chorus of this song by Hunter Hayes.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 170): Tim McGraw

Let $T$ be the set of all times, let $P$ be the set of all places, and let $S(x,t)$ be the proposition “I will see you at place $x$ at time $t$.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall x \in P \forall t \in T (S(x,t))$.

This matches the last line of the chorus from this classic song by Tim McGraw.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 169): Thomas Rhett

Let $P$ be the set of all people, and let $M(x)$ be the proposition “She wants to marry $x$.” Translate the logical statement

$\exists x \in P (M(x)) \land \lnot M(me)$.

This is the last line of the chorus from the canonical country song “Marry Me.”

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 168): Halsey

Let $P$ be the set of all people, let $L(x)$ be the proposition “$x$ will love you.” Translate the logical statement

$\exists x \in P (L(x)) \land \lnot L(I)$.

This matches the lines from “Sorry” by Halsey.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 167): Taylor Swift

Let $P$ be the set of all people, and let $T(x,y)$ be the proposition “$x$ trusts $y$. Translate the logical statement

$\forall x \in P \lnot( T(I,x) \lor T(x,I))$.

This matches the chorus from one of Taylor Swift’s recent hits.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 166): Ed Sheeran

Let $T$ be the set of all things, let $S(x)$ be the proposition “I see $x$,” and let $F(x)$ be the proposition “I have faith in $x$.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall x \in T (S(x) \Rightarrow F(x))$.

This is one of lines from the recent smash hit by Ed Sheeran.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.