19.073 pi/lambda

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 10:21:26 +0100

                Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 73.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
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         Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 10:16:42 +0100
         From: Robin Smith <rasmith_at_aristotle.tamu.edu>
         Subject: Re: 19.068 pi/lambda

On the subject of "what's new?" "pi over lambda", this is a joke
based on a pun, though the form in which I usually heard it was
briefer. The pun is on "new" and "nu" (i.e. the Greek letter nu,
conventionally used in physics to designate the frequency of a
wave. I had a mathematician friend years ago who would invariably
say "Frequency" in response to "What's new?." As for pi over lambda:
I'm not a physicist, but 2*pi/lambda, where lambda is the wavelength
of a wave, is what is called the wave number, which is analogous
to frequency. So, I'm quite sure this is the joke.

Robin Smith
Received on Sun Jun 05 2005 - 05:33:51 EDT

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