this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
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Science Memes

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An English history teacher and a French math teacher meet in the park. The math teacher makes a funny French joke and laughs very hard. The history teacher asks for a translation.

The math teacher looks them in the eye, and moves five steps away. That's it. That's the joke.

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[–] Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It's a math pun that I came up with.

explanation of punIn maths, "translation" is when you move an object in space. It is one of the transformations (like rotation and scaling).

The other, more widely known use of "translation" is to convert between languages (in this case, from French to English).

The math teacher interprets "translation" with the maths definition, and moves five steps. Abstract units (like "steps") is common when you are learning the transformations in school (e.g. Alice moves 10 steps to the right, the point X moves 5 units in the southwest direction)

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 6 points 3 days ago

Angrily upvotes

Oh I see. Thank you for explaining!

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 4 points 3 days ago

"Translation" has several meanings. The joke swaps the expected definition for the unexpected one.

[–] RustyNova@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

That's a good one!