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12/30/2004: Thought for the Day:
For months, every Friday afternoon, a mathematician goes to a bar, climbs on the next-to-last stool, turns to the empty last stool, and asks a girl (who isn't there) if he can buy her a drink. The bartender, used to weird university types, shrugs but stays quiet. But when Valentine's Day arrives and the mathematician makes a particularly heart-wrenching plea into empty space, curiosity betters the bartender and he says, "Buddy, you and I both know there's never a woman on that last stool so why do you keep asking out empty space?" The mathematician replies, "Well, according to quantum physics, empty space is never truly empty; virtual particles come into existence and vanish all the time. Therefore, you never know when the proper wave function will collapse and a girl suddenly appear there." The bartender looks skeptical. "Oh, really? Interesting. But why don't you just ask one of the single girls who come in here every Friday if you could buy her a drink? You never know; she might say yes." The mathematician laughs. "Yeah, right. How likely is that to happen?"
Len on 12.30.04 @ 08:27 AM CST
