BIT IFFY,
I'd have responded that you were doing Maths because you could use it rather than as an act of onanism. (& let's face THEY would've moved onto being Maths teachers - teaching the incomprehensible to the uncomprehending).
For the math people; Did you hear about the constipated mathematician? He worked it out with a pencil!
For the engineers; An optimist sees the glass as being 1/2 full, the pessimist sees the glass as being 1/2 empty, and the engineer only knows that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.