Subj : Re: Hey Nick To : alt.tv.farscape From : weirdwolf Date : Tue Sep 06 2005 04:52:13 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape Jim Larson wrote in news:Xns96C8CE9F056DE3v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: > 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. A grandad who did alevels in pure,aplied and some other form of maths. I think he was enjoying it as much as she was. >> 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.) It a fnction of how the times tables are taught at school. Repetion through them, starting with 1*0 is 0 through to 12*12 is 144. Without somebody actually pointing out the blindingly obvious ,ost people never think about it.In the far east apparently instead of teaching them in that way they only continue from the ones they haven't done before, so after 7*12 they start the next at 8*8 in effect you can imagine the tables as a triangle and not a square. It cuts down on the amount of memorization required and allows for more flexible thinking about what is actually going on. > 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.) I don't now i. I know of them but they werent taught at GSCE standard, at least not to the thicky group that I was in. > 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. Thanks, Looks like I've got a lot of reading and looking up to do. >>> 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. > I'ld make a terrible Barbie, this Ted doll comes with a choice of outfits in black or black, with a limited issue in black. Ted -- Stare too long into the abyss and the abyss looks like a nifty place to hide the bodies .