Math with Bad DrawingsCartoon Archive

Lines Through Points

September 2, 2020

A student catches the teacher's line missing an invisible 'infinitesimally small' point, so the teacher draws big fat dots instead.

Use this cartoon

Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.

Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2020-09-02-lines-through-points/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Transcript

Teacher: "Here we see a line joining two infinitesimally small points." Student: "Actually, you missed the lower one."

Teacher (now with big dots): "Fixed! As I was saying, two infinitesimally small points…"

Topics
Geometry › Points, Lines & PlanesGeometry › Undefined TermsCalculus › Infinitesimals
Level
Middle SchoolHigh School
Themes
Teachers & ClassroomVisual ExplanationsSelf-Reference