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It's a very old joke:

http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/stats/WAPP2_cow.html

When I heard it the punchline was "Assume a spherical cow which isotropically radiates milk", which was pretty awesome.

I like Brass Eye's version of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgnuxd0tiHk

I heard it first originally as an engineering joke. And also horses instead of cows.

You know you're an engineer when: You'll assume a horse is spherical in order to make a math easier.

Funnier with horses. Horses are less spherical. They way they industrially force feed and force breed cows these days, spherical is actually not that ironic an approximation to make. More sad than funny.

I was hoping it was a Fritz Zwicki reference - spherical bastards: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spherical+bas...

Perhaps it will only work in a vacuum?

I like it better than "Beefy Miracle"