Circumcise the Circle
Thursday, December 4, 2003 at 2:23 PM | Filed under high school, math
In pre-calculus class today, class was kinda boring. Mr. Youngren was yabbering about hyperbolas. He talked about some kind of ellipse on the graph, and he said that you have to circumscribe the ellipse. A girl in class giggled and said, "circumcise." Everybody laughed. Mr. Youngren turned toward her and said, "Careful, Jenny. It's 'circumscribe.' " He then turned back to the board, lifted his marker to the ellipse, and continued, "so you circumcise the circle—" and sputtered, and everybody laughed. Even Mr. Youngren. Which just goes to show you that everybody can laugh at his or her own mistake. After that, it was just boring again.
