Fence Building by a Mathematician
One day a farmer called up an engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician and
asked them to fence off the largest possible area with the least amount of
fence.
The engineer made the fence in a circle and proclaimed that he had the most
efficient design.
The physicist made a long, straight line and proclaimed,
“We can assume the
length is infinite”, and pointed out that fencing off half of the Earth was
certainly a more efficient way to do it.
The Mathematician just laughed at them. He built a tiny fence around himself and
said,
“I
declare myself to be on the outside.”