University Anecdotes

[FlatAssembler]

So, guys, do you have some anecdotes from your time at a university you want to share? I have three of them that I consider exceptionally funny:

1) During the summer break, my father asked me which courses I have the next semester. I was naming the courses, and, when I said "object-oriented programming", my father interrupted me and said "How? Object-oriented programming? A really weird name. And, is there then some subject-oriented programming?" I said that, as far as I know, there isn't. Then my father said: "I guess that's something that we historians can't understand. No, that, on Croatian language, that's not a good name.". After a few weeks, we met with some old friend of his. And my father told me: "So, tell him, what's the name of the course you have this semester.". So, I repeated: "object-oriented programming". And then my father asked him: "So, what does that name mean? Can you guess? Well, can you think of a name that's more stupid?". And the friend of my father said: "Well, I guess it's called object-oriented because programming is usually done by mathematicians and people from natural sciences. If programming were done by historians or poets, then it would be called subject-oriented programming.".

2) I also shared this anecdote on the TextKit forum:

Hodie in universitate (ego studeo scientiam computorum) docebamur de theoria unionum. Professor nobis explicabat, cur numerus cardinalis unionis unionum non semper sit summa cardinalum numerorum unionum: "Si hoc veritas esset, canis debet octo crura habere. Canis enim habet duo crura antica, duo crura posteriora, duo crura laeva, et duo crura dextera.".
Ego scio nulla verba Graeca, ergo ego non possim hoc lingua Graeca dicere. Non certus sum etiam, num ego hoc lingua Latina bene dixi.

So, on our statistics lectures, professor told us: "See, the cardinal number of the union of sets doesn't have to be equal to the sum of the cardinal numbers of these sets. Because, if that were the case, a dog would need to have eight legs. Dog namely has two front legs, two beg legs, two left legs and two right legs.".

3) When explaining the Biot-Savart law, our electrical engineering professor told us: "See, when you turn a glass full of water, the water won't spill out of it until some air enters that glass. Similarly, the current won't start flowing from the battery all until some magnetic field enters the battery.".

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I once took a course about the impact of language on culture. The exam was a single question: Define and describe the etymology of the word ‘cheese’ with particular focus on various dynastic societies of the Mediterranean basin.

Thank goodness for grading curves.

Boru

[brewer]

We repeated this one in chem lab (1952 version): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%...experiment

We also did a nutmeg extraction in dorm room: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myristicin

[Abaddon_ire]

I used to participate in the annual boat race. No boats were involved, just relay sprint drinking beer.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I lived in the Grad Houses at Purdue until I got married. They were cool, the kind of place you leave your door unlocked. I came back from classes one day and found a lady happily typing away on my computer. Did I mention she was naked? She was naked. She didn't look up when I came in, just said "Hi, honey, I'll be done in a minute." THEN she looked up and freaked out. Jumped up and ran out of the room. Then ran back in and grabbed at her clothes. I told her I'd wait outside. When she was dressed she rushed past me with a mumbled "sorry!"

FF to six hours later. There's a knock on the door. It's her.

"Um, I need my work off your computer, please."

"I saved it to a zip file on the desktop."

She said I was very nice and explained that she had been one floor off on the room number her boyfriend had given her. I told her I was more than compensated for the use of my computer, and winked. She smiled and asked if I was okay with her borrowing it again sometime?

"Under the same circumstances?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well then."

[Fireball]

I was with a couple of classmates at the PUB (Permanent Utilities Building) on campus and noticed an extremely attractive gal a few tables away. Turns out she was another physics major, so it was easy to get into her social circle and get a date.   4 months later, we were married. We're still married, 39 years later.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I was with a couple of classmates at the PUB (Permanent Utilities Building) on campus and noticed an extremely attractive gal a few tables away. Turns out she was another physics major, so it was easy to get into her social circle and get a date.   4 months later, we were married. We're still married, 39 years later.

"Not much for browsing, are you?"

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Had a literature professor who would occasionally (3-4 times per term) leave a note on the door reading something like, 'Playing golf.  Class to be held at my house, Sat 3:30 PM'.

Nice fella.  Fed us well.

Boru

[Gawdzilla Sama]

When I was in Grad School my lead prof was four days older than me.

[Fireball]

I was with a couple of classmates at the PUB (Permanent Utilities Building) on campus and noticed an extremely attractive gal a few tables away. Turns out she was another physics major, so it was easy to get into her social circle and get a date.   4 months later, we were married. We're still married, 39 years later.

"Not much for browsing, are you?"

I got married at 28. My friends couldn't believe that I was abandoning the lending library for one book.