@Phil

No, I think the blogger is trying to prove that mathematicians would make jokes that would mathematically make sense. A mathematician wouldn’t write PHI but φ. The joke just doesn’t make any sense, isn’t funny for mathematicians. But of course, mathematicians can also make nerdy jokes.

For those interested in science comedy I can recommend acapellascience: <a href="https://youtu.be/LTXTeAt2mpg" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/LTXTeAt2mpg</a>;

In context, “H” is short for a curse word, “hell”. You will often hear hear people replace it with “heck” in order to be more polite (most Americans are really polite -- not like what you see in the movies). “Hell / heck of a“ is a common phrase meaning “very” / “much” or “good”. “He’s a heck of a teacher.” The phrase “a / one heck of a lot” is a common expression meaning “very very much”. Let me know if my answer helped you (as I hope).

It's not a very good joke. That's why nobody laughs.

I think part of it is playing on the idea that the word "hell" is a bad word. In some traditions, "hell" (<em>inferno</em> in Portuguese) is the place in where sinners (bad people) go after death, to be tortured forever. People who take this tradition seriously, take "hell" and "damnation" (being sent to tell) seriously. A hundred years ago, the words "hell" and "damn" were bad words that couldn't be said politely. People used substitute words like "heck" and "darn."

Very rarely, you would hear people just say the name of the letter "H" instead of saying "hell." Just as, today, people speak of "the f-word" instead of using the word itself.

Sometimes "hell" is just used as an intensifier. It means "I feel so strongly that I've forgotten to be polite." f I say "coffee is a hell of a lot better than tea," I mean that coffee is much better than tea and I feel very strongly about that.

So, I think Langdon saying that:

1) the name "phi" is like "pi" with an H added, so

2) "phi" is one H of a lot cooler than "pi," or

3) "phi" is one hell of a lot cooler than "pi."

<em>I</em> wouldn't laugh at that.

Miriam, is that blogger trying to prove that mathematicians are not nearly as funny as depicted in fiction? I'm not buying it though; I know lots of math nerds who are quite funny indeed.