A Joke Based on Significant Figures The following joke was found (in the hall, just before signif~cantfigures were to be discussed) in a Bazooka bubble gum comic. It might be used to introduce significant figures. Bazooka Joe is showing a friend a fossilized bone. The friend asks how old it is and Bazwka Jae respnds that it is one hundred million and three years old. "How do you know that?" asks the friend. Bazooka Joe responds "The museum expert told me it was a hundred million yeara old and that was three years ago." The author readily admits that the joke is not very funnp That it is funny a t all is because even children, just old enough to chew gum without swallowing it, realize that something is wrong about Bazooka Joe's computation: the armrate three years cannot be added to the hall park figure of a hundred million years. This joke is useful in two ways. In addition to illustrating what significant figures are, the joke a h may be encouraging to students in that the conventions they will learn are merely a refinement of something they already intuitively understand.
Ben Ruekberg University of Rhode Island Kingston. RI 02881
306
Journal of Chemical Education
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