After reading this thread, I got to thinking that I really miss math. I loved calc when I took it. Solving problems, finding the areas of cones with spherical chunks taken out, stuff like that. Then calc three, with vectors and double and tripple integrals. Fun, fun stuff. I was pretty good at it too. But, now I’m a struggling musician and probably haven’t done a math problem beyond an algebra II level in 6 years. Now I’m staring at my calculator, wishing I could still do anything with it.
Me too. I loved it when I could look at the 120 problems in a section of my calc textbook and then look over at them all worked out in my notebook. Each one carefully laid out. Since the prof always assigned only a fraction of those, the rest I did for fun.
I hated mathematics, and it hated me. Just looking at a page of that stuff would make me tense and irritable, and my brain would shut down. Needless to say, I am totally appalling at it, and I can barely add 2 and 2.
I am in the thick of it right now. You miss mathematics badly? Here’s a serving of intergration by parts, with sine and cosine and natural log mixed into it. On the other hand, if you really do miss mathematics so much, I have a couple of tutorial questions which I need answers to…
Well, being a musician (what do you play?), maybe you could appreciate the fact that Western music (i.e. music of Europe and North America not necessarily the music of Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, etc) is based on the 12th root of 2. (This is roughly equivalent to 1.05946309…)
Then again, if you like math, you probably already knew this.
If you have a cylindrical glass of diameter D and height T, and you wish to fill it in a sink where the fauce is a height h above the bottom of the sink, you will have to tilt the glass. If you fill it right up to the lip, so that it is nearly overflowing, when you stand the glass upright, how far from the lip of the glass will the surface of the water be?
I’m working on that on and off to procrastinate on my thesis, which contains much much more math, and is strangely much less compeling than the stupid water glass question.
So, so true. Grading papers is more compelling than the thesis. Cleaning house is more compelling than the thesis. Watching my screensaver is more compelling than the thesis.
Oh, and in the above problem I should have mentioned that h<T.
I miss math so much that I stayed up last night, or rather this morning, until 01.00 at Fred 62 working through Velleman’s How To Prove It: A Structured Approach[sup]*[/sup] and being genially mocked by the waitresses.
I miss math so much that when I lived in Milwaukee I took a couple of mathematics classes at MSOE as part of a half-hearted, abortive attempt at grad school. I was almost ready to commute over to Madison to take more classes when I left. I’ve looked into taking one now, just for fun, but PCC doesn’t offer anything above basic calculus and Caltech doesn’t generally accept unmatriculated students. I’ve considered driving down to USC or UCLA, but then if I’m going to do that, I should just go whole hog and get into some kind of graduate program.
Yeah, I miss math. It’s a sociopathic sickness, but at least I don’t have to bury any bodies.
Stranger
[sup]*[/sup]A great book for learning how to create formal proofs for those budding mathematicians there. I would have enjoyed A-Calc much more if I’d been introduced to formal logic first.
Ha, me too! Except I don’t see it as putting it off, or procrastinating. I am letting my math book age, extending the bouqet, and allowing it’s mathmatical juices to ripen for a richer, fuller texture.
This is the first semester I haven’t had math since I began school roughly 11 years ago. Last year, I took the highest class they had at our school, and now I want to take it again. Next semester is statistics, but I can’t wait for college to begin so I can get back into some actual learning.
Of course, leaving kids behind is easier than actually allowing teachers to teach.
It happens to a lot of kids. I think its one of the reasons why we now have the “National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth” (for whom I tutor on a regular basis). It certainly helps the kids, in that they’re stretched to their limits, further than what their teachers can do, and inspires them, so that they’re not bored, which is what normally happens with these kids.
You can have my classes. I will be so fracken glad when I finish the for my degree, because then I’ll never have to so much as look at double intergral again(I’m going for an entirely different degree if/when I go back to college, one that doesn’t care if you can do insanely abstract equations.)
Physics I loved, Chemistry I’m rather fond of. Calculas I hate with every fiber of my being.
I’m not sure that finishing is a good idea. I finished mine, and haven’t done much math since. For the last eight years, the most complicated math I’ve seen is my kids’ homework.
I’m actually hoping to get a job offer with these guys I used to work with. Then I’ll be able to at least look at an integral.
I hope I can get paid real money for this stuff soon.