Two Points Make a Line
A student graphs y = x², x³ and x⁴ as straight lines through (0,0) and (1,1), proudly misquoting Einstein.
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Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2019-01-29-two-points-make-a-line/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
A: "Whoa… why does your homework look so different from mine?" B: "You overcomplicated things. To graph a line, you just need two points."
[A's graphs of y = x², x³, x⁴ are curves; B's are all straight lines through (0,0) and (1,1)]
A: "Ohhh! Now I get it." B: "It's like Albert Einstein said: 'Make everything as simple as possible, or, if necessary, even simpler.'"