Disclaimer: This is not a joke about mathematicians
Just last week, my Cultural Anthropology professor gave us a list of about 50 words to study for the exam. We were required to pick 5 words out of the 14 that he will choose from that initial 50 and define them. You know you're a mathematician when you spend your study time calculating the minimum number of words you need to study to be 90% confident so that know at least 5 words. It is obvious that to be 100% confident you know at least 5 words, you just have to study 41 words. What? It's not obvious? OK, for those of you who are slower, studying 41 words meant that you miss out 9 words. Assuming that ALL 9 words you did not study were in the professor's list, the 5 remaining words in his list would definitely coincide with yours. Of course being 100% confident is not the most efficient and practical thing to do from a statistical viewpoint. So 90% is good enough. For those of you lazy bums who choose not to work out the answer, and are dying to to know what is the minimum number of words that need to be studied...
Well, I never calculated it. I don't know if I am a mathematician.
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