“Two fermions walk into a bar…” (bar joke)
“A guy walks into a bar…” is a typical form of what has been called the “bar joke.” A physics joke about two fermions (and the Pauli exclusion principle) is:
“Two fermions walk into a bar. One orders a drink. The other says. ‘I’ll have what he’s having.’”
The joke has been cited in print since at least 2000. In 2001, the joke was credited to Jeff Nastasi.
“On Pauli Exclusion Princip: Two Fermions walk into a bar; one orders a martini w/ a twist; other says ‘Dang, thats what I wanted!’”—a popular form of the joke—was posted on Twitter on April 1, 2011.
Wikipedia: Fermion
In particle physics, a fermion (a name coined by Paul Dirac from the surname of Enrico Fermi) is any particle characterized by Fermi–Dirac statistics. These particles obey the Pauli exclusion principle. Fermions include all quarks and leptons, as well as any composite particle made of an odd number of these, such as all baryons and many atoms and nuclei. Fermions differ from bosons, which obey Bose–Einstein statistics.
A fermion can be an elementary particle, such as the electron, or it can be a composite particle, such as the proton. According to the spin-statistics theorem in any reasonable relativistic quantum field theory, particles with integer spin are bosons, while particles with half-integer spin are fermions.
Wikipedia: Pauli exclusion principle
The Pauli exclusion principle is the quantum mechanical principle that states that two identical fermions (particles with half-integer spin) cannot occupy the same quantum state simultaneously. In the case of electrons, it can be stated as follows: it is impossible for two electrons of a poly-electron atom to have the same values of the four quantum numbers: n, the principal quantum number, ℓ, the angular momentum quantum number, mℓ, the magnetic quantum number, and ms, the spin quantum number. For example, if two electrons reside in the same orbital, and if their n, ℓ, and mℓ values are the same, then their ms must be different, and thus the electrons must have opposite half-integer spins of 1/2 and -1/2. This principle was formulated by Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli in 1925 for electrons, and later extended to all fermions with his spin-statistics theorem of 1940.
Google Groups: soc.retirement
Bad Puns
FMMcNeill
7/9/00
(...)
So two fermions walk into a bar. One orders a drink. The other says “I’ll have what he’s having.”
Total Annihilation Universe
Physics jokes
He who rules
30 Aug 2001, 8:10 AM
Two fermions walk into a bar. One orders a drink. The other says “I’ll have what he’s having.” (credit: Jeff Nastasi)
Ars Technica
Fiendish
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:19 am
(...)
I know one should never say something is impossible, but the whole idea of fermions is that they can’t be in the same state. Hence the joke: Two fermions walk into a bar. One orders a drink. The other says “I’ll have what he’s having” or Two electrons walk into a bar. The first asks for a gin and tonic. The second slams his hand on the table and says “Damn, that’s what I wanted!”
Physics Forums
Science Jokes
#73 Imparcticle
Jun 18, 2004
(...)
Two fermions walk into a bar. One orders a drink. The other says ‘I’ll have what he’s having.’ (credit: Jeff Nastasi)
AnandTech
A neutron walks into a bar…
element, Jul 27, 2004
Two fermions walk into a bar. One orders a drink. The other says “I’ll have what he’s having”
ScienceBlogs
Two Fermions Walk Into a Bar…
Posted by Chad Orzel on October 31, 2006
(...)
The title, by the way, is the opening to an incredibly dorky joke:
Two fermions walk into a bar.
The bartender asks, “So, what’ll it be.”
The first one says, “I’ll have a gin and tonic.”
The second one replies, “Dammit, that’s what I wanted!”
Twitter
Mer
@alarmallama
@wingedmonkey Two fermions walk into a bar. The first fermion orders a gin and tonic.
7:15 PM - 18 Dec 2008
Twitter
Sean Carroll
@seanmcarroll
Two fermions walk into a bar. One orders a Guinness. The other says, “Damn! That’s what I was going to have!”
12:15 PM - 9 Mar 2009
Twitter
Zach Blagg
@zblagg
@LauraMa3 ba-doom bah! Two fermions walk into a bar. One orders a drink. The other says “I’ll have what he’s having.”
3:32 PM - 1 Apr 2009
Twitter
Rafael S Calsaverini
@rcalsaverini
Two fermions walk into a bar. The first say to the bartender: ‘‘a coke, please’‘, and the other say ‘‘DAMN, I wanted that…’‘.
5:38 PM - 23 Nov 2009
Twitter
Trevor Allen
@tcallen07
@scifri On Pauli Exclusion Princip: Two Fermions walk into a bar; one orders a martini w/ a twist; other says “Dang, thats what I wanted!”
2:23 PM - 1 Apr 2011
Thought Catalog
OCTOBER 15, 2013
50 People On ‘The Most Intellectual Joke I Know’
Chrissy Stockton
(...)
12. Ayotte:
Two fermions walk into a bar. The first says “I’d like a vodka martini with a twist.” The second says “Dammit, that’s what I wanted!”
Google Books
Physics on Your Feet:
Berkeley Graduate Exam Questions:
Or Ninety Minutes of Shame but a PhD for the Rest of Your Life!
By Dmitry Budker and Alexander O. Sushkov
Illustrated by Vasiliki Demas
Oxford: Oxford University Press
2015
Pg. ?:
Two fermions walk into a bar. The first says “I’d like a vodka martini with a twist.” The second says “Dammit, that’s what I wanted!”