Shade
I’m assuming that Dynamics(UK)=Physics(US) but what is Measure Theory? Theology or maybe Apologetics?
Measure theory is halfway advanced math–the sort that you’d run into at the end of an undergraduate degree, or the beginning of a graduate one.
I took an amazing class in high school misnamed “Music, Art & Literature.” No lit involved, but we took museum trips to see artwork; we had season tickets to the Phila. Orchestra (when Eugene Ormandy was still conducting), and took architectural walking tours through the city.
About 20 years later I tracked down the teacher and sent her a thank-you note for introducing me to so many things that have remained so inportant to me.
Sorry, maybe should have been clearer.
Dynamics is the part of mechanics part of physics/applied maths, dealing with balls in motion, etc. I learnt some in physics, some in maths, and some in 1st year of my maths degree.
Measure theory is a really technical course I never really understood about how mathematicians define probability. One of the points raised is that possible things can have probability zero (eg. prob. that a random real number will be rational) and relatedly anyone saying ‘well, God existing is possible, and has infinite payoff, hence has positive expectation’ isn’t making any sense.
Eve
I tried to get into a class just like the one you describe when I came out to Philly for a semester. I never made it off of the waiting list. Did you get over to the Rodin museum?
Shade
Interesting. I’ve heard Pascal’s wager many times from Christians, but have never heard it countered using mathematics. I guess that’s why the course title threw me. I’ve only ever encountered the argument in a religious context.
Yup. Typing. It has saved me thousands of hours of time in the long run. I pity the fools who hunt and peck.
Algebra is great, too, and I use it every day.
Example:
A shirt is $39.95 and is 30% off. 100%-30%=70%. 70% of $40 (7 x 4) is $28.00 The shirt will cost me ~$28.00.
High school - Physics. I never put much effort into it, but the knowledge just flowed into me. It all made sense.
The first few days of Programming at college my programming skills ballooned as I spent long nerdy hours experimenting in my own time.
Introduction to Office Products:
This class was designed for the business user to learn how to use MS Word, Excel, and dBaseIV (Prior to Microsoft Access). A full quarter split three ways. This was about the time Microsoft 3.1, and the Office Suites began appearing
Much like others have said about typing, I learned how to use the tools I now need every day. I still have my manuals from the class, and it’s amazing how often I find solutions from Word/Excel 2002 in my 3.1 manuals.
History of the World (Big Bang to 1914):
High School Advanced Placement History class, with a 2000 page book to be read prior to the class starting. I spent the entire summer reading it.
The teacher didn’t care about when or who, he wanted WHY something happened. We spent the entire year following the events in the modern era, and tracing the roots back to the Irish Time of Troubles, the Crusades/religious wars, to as far back as the Roman Legions.
A class that didn’t focus on a particular timeframe of history is amazing. I still thank Dr. Dahl for this class, 14 years later. I’d love to teach history, but I think I’d use Dr. Dahl’s technique.
Except perhaps do it backwards. Start the class in 1914, and work back to the crusades. That will make people think about cause & effect.
Fundamentals of Union Negotiating:
Almost as good as Psych for figuring out what makes people tick, and how to give them what they thing they want.
Intro to Insurance:
A stupid class, taught by a stupid teacher. But, she made me read the book in order to pass her class.
Guess what I work for now??? And I still store that book on my desk at work.
Physical Chemistry.
I threw a few Liberal Arts college courses into my engineering curriculum and would have a hard time choosing one single most valuable course either in LA or Eng.
For high school classed, by far the most valuable one over the years has been typing. And I got and F in that because I didn’t turn in all the work projects required. Just the same, I learned to touch type and have used that skill at all times since then.
Wow, I never even thought about typing class, but that does rank right up there.
In high school, I took an honors-level world history class that was just amazing. We covered the whole world (as opposed to just Europe & the US) from about 1300 to the 1970s. Very intense class with a great teacher. It was my first real exposure to non-Western history and it showed me how one country’s actions can affect others.
AP English was another great class. We had to write like crazy and dissect a wide range of literature. That class definitely serves me well in daily life since I do a fair amount of proofreading and editing, and also gave me the ability to bang out an essay in a short amount of time.
And finally, technical theater class in college. We had a kick-ass tech director and had loads of fun, but most importantly, it taught me to love power tools! Seriously, though, I’m much more capable of doing small home repairs than many of the other women I know.
Well, it’s probably not the most useful way of phrasing the objection, as it only makes sense to mathematicians. Though most people this century should be aware that anything that you can’t just throw infinities into an argument and expect it to make sense. But I just find it interesting. We once had a big argument about which was the fundamental flaw in the wager, until we realised that anything that allowed each of us a favorite flaw was probably beyond redemption.
I was a philosophy major, and the most useful classes I ever took were Intro to Logic and Advanced Logic.
Barry
Costume Design.
I learned to sew!
Nuclear Energy Conversion - pretty useful; I use it every day. 
I was a studio art and art history major, but the single most useful class, as in the one which gave me information I use almost daily, was animal science 49, companion animal husbandry. It was a lower division survey class on basic animal husbandry, but went into great detail on behavior and nutrition for all species of domestic livestock and companion animals, and I refer to my notes from that and subsequent courses all the time.
~mixie
Child Psychology and Childhood Cognitive Theory (and Typing)
I took these classes…forgot all about them and now that I have an 1.5 year old son…it’s all come back to me now.
It’s amazing what you can understand from a child who can’t speak a word to you (at least modern English) when you have some sort of understanding what motivates them and how they learn.
They were all useful in one way or another, but I would have to cast another vote for my 9th grade typing class. Learning to touch type at 80 wpm has saved me countless hours and dollars. Learning to write well would come second to the typing, or perhaps is its equal. The combination has allowed me to draft correspondence in one or two trys, and to produce it in a fraction of the time it takes others. College papers were produced in short order, personnel evaluations are a breeze, point papers are a snap, etc.
[hijack] Does anyone else remember the Tom Lehrer song where he says that in college he studied animal husbandy - until they caught him at it?[/hijack]
Not specifically, but it sounds like something he would say.