Subj : Re: Hey Nick To : alt.tv.farscape From : Jim Larson Date : Tue Sep 06 2005 04:19:09 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape weirdwolf wrote: > Jim Larson wrote in > news:Xns96C8C4EC2841E3v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: > >>> >> >> Big ol reject. I got fed up and quit. Moved to computer science and >> robotics. Stuff you can touch. > > So not big on number theory then? >;-) I did differential geometry, not any sort of number theory. > When I was teaching stuff I loved thinking of how many different ways you > could explain stuff to people so you could find the right experience they > had as a sort of hook to hang stuff on. Like teaching Jess the idea of > commutativity by balancing blocks on grandads head. Doesn't matter where And...grandad didn't object to having a bunch of blocks stacked on his head? A very cool grandad indeed. > the blocks ae and which way that you add them up there is the same > number. It amazes me the number of people who when you ask them what is 4 > *7 automatically answer 28 but when you ask what is 7*4 have to pause. > (Those people, assuming they've finished grade school, are stupid.) You know what complex numbers are, yes? (I have no idea how far you get with GCSE, so pardon the possible insult. It's not intended.) Do you know quaternions (sometimes called Hamiltonian quaternions or hypercomplex numbers)? If not, look 'em up. They're non-commutative. Go a little further and you hit Cayley numbers. They're non-associative. >> You are already far and away better informed on the subject than the >> vast, vast majority of folks, so the self-deprecating Barbie thing is >> clearly just to get in good with Ruediger[1]. > > Nah it's true I am thick, I was also blond. > Did you have a different dress for every occasion and profession? Because that would totally rock. -- Jim .