PLUS A CONSTANT
Two mathematicians were having dinner in a restaurant. They were arguing about the average mathematical knowledge of the American public. The first mathematician claimed that this average was woefully inadequate while the second maintained that it was surprisingly high. “I’ll tell you what,” said the first mathematician, “when I get back from the bathroom we’ll ask our food server a simple calculus question: ‘What is the integral of x squared.’ If she gets it right, I’ll buy dinner. If not, you buy dinner, okay?” They agreed, but once the first mathematician left, the second called for the food server. “When my friend comes back, I am going to ask you a question,” the second mathematician told her. “When I ask you the question, just answer, ‘one third x cubed.’ Regardless of what I ask you, just say, ‘one third x cubed.’ And here is twenty dollars for your trouble.” The food server was delighted to play along–for twenty dollars– why not?…
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