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Apr. 8th, 2006 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bliumchikThe tiny Indian math teacher at our school usually takes us when Ms Vis is away. She had us a week or so ago, and tried to teach us about hyperbolas. What follows is broadly paraphrased.
Miss: Okay so infinity, right. See, you have to imagine there's this frog. Okay, I have this frog, and it does jobs for me, and then it comes to sit on my shoulder. But I don't like it sitting on my shoulder, because it's a frog. So I give it a job because it won't come and sit on my shoulder as long as it has work to do. Like you should not be talking until you have finished your maths work! Anyway, this frog, right. I give it a job that takes a long time, I trick it. I tell it, go jump to that wall, but you have to do it like this. These are the rules. You jump half the distance with each jump. So you see I am being clever, and he will never reach the wall because when he reaches halfway, *starts walking towards wall* are you following me, girls?
Class: O.o
Miss: Okay so infinity, right. See, you have to imagine there's this frog. Okay, I have this frog, and it does jobs for me, and then it comes to sit on my shoulder. But I don't like it sitting on my shoulder, because it's a frog. So I give it a job because it won't come and sit on my shoulder as long as it has work to do. Like you should not be talking until you have finished your maths work! Anyway, this frog, right. I give it a job that takes a long time, I trick it. I tell it, go jump to that wall, but you have to do it like this. These are the rules. You jump half the distance with each jump. So you see I am being clever, and he will never reach the wall because when he reaches halfway, *starts walking towards wall* are you following me, girls?
Class: O.o
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Date: 2006-04-08 06:41 am (UTC)what?
As an explanation of, say, asymptotes, or geometric progressions, or limits, it makes sense. Almost. But infinity? o.O
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Date: 2006-04-08 06:44 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-04-08 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-04-08 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 07:01 am (UTC)I'd be far more interested by the frog-and-wall version if the total distance travelled by the frog were constant - ie, if shorter distances hopped meant jumping higher to account for the rest of the distance of the jump.
And then introducing wind as a factor, moving the frog further toward the wall.no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-04-08 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 07:12 am (UTC)...holyfuckitsaftermidnight. Uuuuuh. I think I have to wake up in six hours or so. I'm off! Bye.
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Date: 2006-04-08 07:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 06:53 am (UTC)And omg I remember that teacher. She totally screwed me over. After having her for a few weeks in year 10, I couldn't say parabola for about a year. I said para-bowler. And everyone laughed at me. And it's all her fault because of her stupid pronounciation. Bah. :/
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Date: 2006-04-08 06:56 am (UTC)I'd happily forgotten that p-word, but no, there it is in an EllJay comment. Well, you and your precious x2=4ay can go and do... um... whatever it is you do. Typically that's solving for x, IIRC.
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Date: 2006-04-08 07:24 am (UTC)....which means I am sure to have forgotten it by Monday, and by Tuesdays assessment any slight trace of it shall be removed from my mind completely. Damn. Guess I can't take over the world after all.
When x²=4ay is in my hands, it does less of the solving for x and more of the aiding in the catch-up of missed hours of sleep that should have occured during the 7 hours previous, but didn't due to more important commitments - namely escapism, and the act of drowing out my mother's tedious "maths is power" monotone.
Why can't I return to the lovely days of 1 + 1 = 347? *whinge*
Maybe when I forget the p-word entirely, I can truly concentrate on conquering the universe.
Ignore this crack-induced babble.
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Date: 2006-04-08 07:41 am (UTC)Actually, the discriminant is good for lazy people. And for sketch graphs.
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Date: 2006-04-08 07:49 am (UTC)The only reason I am doing maths at all is because I slept through the entirety 11th grade economics and had to drop it, and thus didn't have enough units to let maths go. It's so hard to study it when one has no interest whatsoever.
And by the way, that avatar totally pwns.
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Date: 2006-04-08 07:52 am (UTC)Also, thanks!
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Date: 2006-04-08 07:17 am (UTC)That is hilarious.
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Date: 2006-04-08 08:26 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-04-08 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 08:11 pm (UTC)