Kit YatesQ. Why do mathematicians confuse Halloween and Christmas?
A. Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec.
Happy Christmas.
CuriousCat@kityates not being a mathematician I don't understand it.
Elaine Ford@CuriousCat @kityates nor me! I thought it was maybe 31 octagons = 25 decagons, but not quite! 🤔
LynxNot getting the solution after some personal calculations I googled the answer:
Why do engineers confuse Halloween and Christmas? Because Oct 31 = Dec 25. Can someone explain this joke?
Answer (1 of 2): Here Oct 31 is thought as the number 31 in the octal system(base 8 ie. the only digits used are 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7) . Similarly Dec 25 would be 25 in the decimal system.( The default base 10 system). Now 31 in octal is 3*8 + 1= 25 in the decimal system. That's how you get Oct 31=De...
Solomon Foster@CuriousCat @kityates 31 in base 8 (octal) is 3 8s plus 1, that is 25 in base 10 (decimal).
Minimaliste13@kityates I like that and I'm okay with it.
Darren Phipson@kityates My favourite mathematical joke
Ian Kingston@kityates My birthday is 31 Oct. Does that mean I have two birthdays each year or two Christmases?
Andrew C.A. Elliott
Michael Veale
Jim Breeds
Philip Dutré@kityates That’s an oldie. And it used to be computer scientists, when oct numbers were still a thingie.
Arseny Khakhalin@kityates More like computer science undergrads amirite? :)
Corey Bradshaw (Kaurna Land)@kityates Aha!
3*8^1 + 1*8^0
Dibley@kityates what the hex are you on about.. very good.
msgbi
Alexander Diemand 💚@kityates brilliant! 😁
Yusuf Toropov@kityates Base 8 vs base 10. Says logical inference only. I do not do math if I can avoid it and I usually can.
François Caron 🇨🇦@kityates Found the old HP3000 programmer! 😁
Phil Wilmarth@kityates You could have used the content warnings to point out that this is a non-binary joke...
Alex Anderson@kityates Nice! I guess that works better in the US than in the UK
Sour Tim@kityates made me laugh once I twigged!
AkaSci 🛰️
H4Heights 🇪🇺🇵🇸🇺🇦🇨🇦
Dr. Zeke
brocolie (tots not a vampire)
Rosemarie and Owen Kelly@kityates Hands up- I don’t get it!
NA 
@kityates Haha! Too true!
Ken Ellinwood@kityates On my 31st birthday I joked about getting older and my office mate said "Hey, your still a teenager in hex!"
Sloan Studio@kityates Do mathematicians really use different base systems or just computer programmers?
Pawel Siwczak پفل@kityates I've learnt something new! 😅
Stan van Pelt@kityates There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand that joke and those who don't.