The Thing, What It Looks Like, What It Really Is
A three-column chart: a hanging chain looks parabolic but is a catenary, an orbit looks circular but is elliptical, and meme-reading is secretly studying.
Drawn for Art of Problem Solving (AoPS).
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/2021-05-01-the-thing-what-it-looks-like-what-it-really-is/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
[The Thing / What It Looks Like / What It Really Is] hanging chain: parabola y = ax² + b / catenary y = a·cosh(x/a) · an orbit: circle x² + y² = r² / ellipse ax² + by² = 1 · me, right now [on phone]: procrastinating by reading memes / studying math by reading memes