The Cox-Zucker Machine

The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldmod to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1028 points –
35

A few weeks after we met, we realized that we had to write a joint paper because the combination of our last names, in the usual alphabetical order, is remarkably obscene.

-D. Cox

legend

The best part is that Cox and Zucker didn't give it the name Cox-Zucker machine themselves, because you're not supposed to name things after yourself. A third person, Schwartz, caught the joke and gave it the name.

the "see also" lol

English isn't my first language. I don't wanna spoil the joke but someone explain the joke here or in dms. What is a cox ring?

It sounds like cock. A cock ring is a ring that a person would put on a penis for sexual simulation, the same as using a dildo.

I'm fluent in English, and I have a PhD in chemistry, which involved a lot of complicated mathematics. I can tell you with total honesty that despite reading five wiki pages deep, I still don't have a clue.

Men after my own heart. Mad respect for the dedication to the joke.

Crap I'll never be able to slide that into a casual conversation.

Well you could just lie when someone asks what you do for work and say:

"I'm a mathematician actually. I spend the vast majority of my time working with the Cox-Zucker machine."

It's always neat reading an article where I can pinpoint the exact moment it goes over my head. In this instance, everything before "torsion" makes perfect sense, and everything afterward is witchcraft and I will be testifying against Cox and Zucker at the trial

I explain it to you, just stand here and look through the hole...

Five years later? What a half-fast attempt at a joke!