Feeling a Little Derivative

Posted by jns on January 11, 2006

I knew a mathematician who had a recurrent dream. He dreamt that he was a partial derivative.

[Jeremy Bernstein, A Theory for Everything (Singer-Verlag, New York, 1996), p. 263.]

This quotation no doubt tells you more about me than I expect, but when I read it I found it terribly funny. I also have the strong conviction that it’s saying “partial derivative” that makes it so funny; “He dreamt he was a derivative” barely provokes a smile. I doubt, though, that it would be at all funny to someone who has no idea what a partial derivative is.