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So a mathematician, an engineer, and a physicist are out hunting together. They spy a deer(*) in the woods.

The physicist calculates the velocity of the deer and the effect of gravity on the bullet, aims his rifle and fires. Alas, he misses; the bullet passes three feet behind the deer. The deer bolts some yards, but comes to a halt, still within sight of the trio.

"Shame you missed," comments the engineer, "but of course with an ordinary gun, one would expect that." He then levels his special deer-hunting gun, which he rigged together from an ordinary rifle, a sextant, a compass, a barometer, and a bunch of flashing lights which don't do anything but impress onlookers, and fires. Alas, his bullet passes three feet in front of the deer, who by this time wises up and vanishes for good.

"Well," says the physicist, "your contraption didn't get it either."

"What do you mean?" pipes up the mathematician. "Between the two of you, that was a perfect shot!"

(*) How they knew it was a deer:
The physicist observed that it behaved in a deer-like manner, so it must be a deer.
The mathematician asked the physicist what it was, thereby reducing it to a previously solved problem.
The engineer was in the woods to hunt deer, therefore it was a deer.

FReegards,
Max (i = physicist)

An engineer and a mathematician applied for a job at the local factory. After an interview, the applicants were take outside for an employment test. Stopwatch in hand, the interviewer gave both a rope and a bucket, and told them to fetch five gallons of water from a well some distance away.

Trying to look as efficient as possible, the engineer ran down to the well, tied the rope to the bucket, lowered the bucket in the well, retrieved some water, and ran back to the start line with his full bucket of water.

The mathematician, being a clever fellow, also quickly solved the problem and returned with his bucket full.

The interviewer again asked them to get bucket full of water. The engineer just stood and watched as the matematician ran back to the well and dumped the water our of the bucket. Then he pulled up the empty bucket, ran back to the starting point, and untied the rope, setting the empty bucket by his feet with a satisfied look on his face.

The interviewer, dumbfounded, asked the engineer why he hadn't done anything. "I already have a bucket full of water." was his reply.

The interviewer than asked the mathematician why he had returned with the empty bucket and untied the rope.

"I have reduced the problem to one for which the solution is known." he proudly exclaimed.

The engineer got the job.