I thought of another one A man walks into a Colombian bank with $50,000 in US $100 bills. CLERK: I'm sorry sir, but these notes are counterfeit... MAN: Uh... CLERK: ...However, they are not *bad* counterfeits, and I am prepared to offer you $40 for each... Thane Plambeck http://www.plambeck.org/ehome.htm Daniel Asimov wrote:

Jim writes:

<< I'm teaching a course on quantitative reasoning for an audience of nearly two hundred math-averse students, and one of the ways I'm hoping to "sell the product" to them is to pitch the course as a kind of self-defense art that helps you not get ripped off by used car dealers, cell-phone companies, credit-card companies, banks, etc. . . . . . . . . .

Hmmm. There's a classic book by Darrell Huff called "How to Lie With Statistics" -- and not being misled by statistics is an important form of mathematical self-defense.

Chain letters also come to mind, the kind that can expand exponentially and make the originators quite a lot of money while leaving most of the the nth-generation folks $25 poorer.

(Aside to Thane: Does this kind of chain letter qualify as a form of a Ponzi scheme? Does Amway?)

--Dan

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