cranky today

[likethebeer]

Don't know why, I just am.

Today's the 20th anniversary of the shuttle Challenger disaster. I will probably always remember sitting in Physics class as a sr. in high school when my teacher came in & said, "The shuttle blew up." And I thought he said, "the shuttle went up." I was like, "Yeah, so, shuttles go up all the time." Then he brought out a tv where they were replaying that tape.

hmmm. When Columbia disintegrated just under 3 years ago, I also misinterpreted what someone had said to me originally. They said something like, "Columbia is breaking up over Texas." And I thought they meant the country of Colombia. I couldn't figure out what Colombians were doing in TX, or why they were so upset about it, or something like that.

That's quite a coincidence that had never occurred to me before.

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On another note, I mentioned to kitchenwitch that I spent about 15 minutes last week trying to remember what the quadratic equation was. I remember being very curious about what it was before I knew what it was; and I remember understanding it; and I could almost remember what it looked like. But I couldn't remember exactly what it looked like (and it turns out that I was remembering the quadratic formula, not the quadratic equation) and I had no idea anymore of its function. I just looked it up in Wikipedia, and it has struck me full force how very far away I am now from understanding, um, complex math. Although as I recall, I learned this in Trigonometry-Pre-Calc, which on the scale of big math, is probably not that complex at all. I guess I've had this thought for nearly 20 years that it would be fun to take an algebra class, but I would probably have to take really basic algebra, considering that I don't really understand some of the things that the Wikipedia article is talking about. No, that doesn't mean I'm bad at math,¹ it just means I haven't done it extensively for close to 20 years. Ok?

That sr. year in high school was kind of nice, in that I was taking both physics and trig/pre-calc, and there was this certain symmetry to it, because all the math seemed to go together v.nicely. We were using trig equations in a lot of the physics problems (although not vice versa). I think there was even a few days there, near the end of that year, where I just started to get the cusp of calculus, although of course we really didn't get into it much at all. But I do remember thinking that calculus, which had been this big, huge thing that was so hard, suddenly didn't seem that insurmountable. I certainly always liked math, and even toyed w/the idea of studying it in college, but I realized, just as I realized about me and music, that I didn't have the talent to be truly extraordinary. Seeing others, or hearing about their experiences over the years, I can see now that I would have drowned immediately, if I'd even made it that far.

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¹That was just something my middle sister told me when I saw her. Apparently this still bugs me. Although in no way am I livsmama in the math aptitude. Not when my nearest approaches to math recently are adding & subtracting in my checkbook; or using math occasionally (and esp. geometry) when I've worked on stained glass.

Comments

calculus

[erisreg.livejournal.com]

it should be taught in grade school (it was for a while before the demise of'new math' ) because it is the basis of how math works,.. not just the rote learning of tables and equations,.. but old habits die hard,..:)
music is math,..:)

Re: calculus

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Oh! Calculus in grade school! I seemed to remember that it involved a lot of formulas. I was in the post-"new math" set. Everyone told me that I was very lucky.

Everyone told me that I was very lucky.

[erisreg.livejournal.com]

heh, every kid i knew that had a decient teacher that learned the new math, never had any problems with the rest of it,.. but the biggest complaints came from adults who couldn't fathom the process,.
there are some good books out now that step around the Calculus label,..:)

Re: Everyone told me that I was very lucky.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

you're right--I never heard a complaint from anyone who wasn't an adult. Of course, I don't think I've heard from anyone who learned new math as a kid, either. I'll have to remember to ask around.

[wi-c.livejournal.com]

I believed I was bad at math. Then I read "Innumeracy" and realized it wasn't so damn hard. Now I LOVE everyday math.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Another book to put on the list, I suppose. I loved math--especially algebra. There was such a simple perfection to it. Such a symmetry. It made my brain happy.

[coconuthead.livejournal.com]

Ha! I guess you've never been at a party with a drunken livsmama, or else that book would've surely come up before. (not that you've had so many opportunities)

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

It was one of those things tucked into the back of my brain. I remember the author being on Letterman. Then again, I'm sure livsmama has mentioned the book title around me, b/c I'm sure I've seen her just a little drunk, at least.

everyday math

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

I still don't like adding/subtracting in my checkbook, but I do it anyway b/c I hear it's good for your brain. And I might as well do simple math so that I remember how to add/subtract w/out a damned calculator.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Okay, I used to do these equations in algebra class, back in high school. It wasn't easy, but I managed to be able to solve them. But I never figured out what it is for.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have no idea what the derivation is, and I think I remember that also.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

I like to show off my math skills at work, by writing such derivations on our white board.

I've prove pythagoras' theorem.
I've solved ax² + bx + c = 0
I've proven the limit of (sin x)/x as x approaches 0 is 1.
And I've drawn a common-emitter model for a bipolar transistor.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

You beat all of us. Is this for fun, or is it part of the learning curve?

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I have this compelling need to prove something.

One time at bowling, someone asked me how to convert a number into hexadecimal. It had something to do with satellite descrambling codes. I couldn't remember the algorithm so I had to cypher it on a napkin.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Well, if it makes you feel good and you've got a white board for it, by all means prove something any time you get the urge.

Anybody who came across that napking must have found some interesting trash.

We spent a good half-hour last Saturday trying to figure out if "Monkey see, monkey do" was an idiom. Turns out it's an aphorism. wi_c's mom was the one to come up w/it even though she didn't remember the word's definition--just wanted to throw the word out there to confuse whomever was asking the question. turns out she was right once we looked it up in a dictionary. So that's as fancy as we've gotten recently.

[livsmama.livejournal.com]

Just because I have the degree doesn't mean I can really do it.

Yes! you must read Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos. I would say more but I am one handed typing.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you can still understand what they're talking about without that much trouble, I'm thinking. I'm still a little fuzzy about these "derivations" that sacramentalist referred to. And you know, it just rubs my brain the wrong way--I should at least remember what derivation means when I hear the word. "Oh, yeah! I remember that...." How come I can remember the difference between the feast of the immaculate conception and the feast of the annunciation, but can't remember something about math? I studied both math and religion for the same amount of time. oh well.