Fresnel Batman

Physicists are well known for their geek sense of humour; we can have a blast on our Christmas party trying to define Time or in the local pub making party hats float with helium balloons (true story).

Incorporating humour into an oral presentation or a lab report is a double-edged sword; it can either make one person laugh or possibly get annoyed.

One of the most creative "jokes" I recently came across, is the diagram below. I was notified by our teaching assistant Michela Picardi to check one of our students' report on Fresnel Diffraction. The lab report was well structured in the appropriate sections showing their results, graphs and analysis. All well. Scrolling down, there was an Appendix. We always encourage students to use Appendices for supplementary information. The student there, after spending hours in Matlab reproducing the winged Fresnel patterns, couldn't hold but to express this:

Courtesy of Carlo Maino, 2nd year student in Physics, King's College London

Yes, indeed physicists are nerds and I'm much enjoying that!