Rongnongno Loc: FL

Earlier in the day I had a short conversation with a UHH member...

This afternoon I took a catnap (something my dogs would never had let do if they were still alive) and I woke up in a fright:

I dreamed I was back in college and learning about math...

I HATE MATE! POX ON MATH!!!

:hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf:

Rongnongno Loc: FL

DO note: learned ABOUT, no learned it... Never did however talented my math teacher were I was never able to remember formulas and the like but I can reconstruct them as needed if necessary, unknowing I had them 'reconstructed'...

Did that in programming several time and got yelled at because I was not doing the 'exercise properly'!!!! Why use line of codes when can just do this or that?

I complained once to my wife about it:
- No wonder you use a math formula
- Says what?
- That one is how you calculate the future value of a capital...

Needless to say I hate math even further because I got an 'F' in several programming assignments simply by using one liners that were math...

I don't like it and it bites me back in the neither region all the time!

What kind of crap (oops brown stuff) is something you cannot learn and yet turns out all over and then screws with you again and again?

So yeah, I hate math! And Trigonometry and calculus and the Greeks and don't mention the Arabs! Inventing '0' What kind of insanity was that?

:hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf:

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

I loved math, except when it wasn't math. Venn diagrams, sets and subsets, and so on - wasn't math. That was the only time I ever got a D in anything.

Bobbee

I grew up in a very bad neighborhood with very bad friends. I was a troublemaker. So, very bad schooling experience as I was always in trouble. Sophomore year, LaSalle Academy, 2nd Ave and 2nd St, NYC. and Mr. Stoneface Healy and Geometry. I was know in the school as always in the pricipals office and my dad was getting tired of paying the bill for my less than stella achievement in the school. One day, Stoneface puts a graduate problem on the board and sez, who ever gets it, 10 point on the report card. Before he finished I had it. 15 blackboards and a mixed class with a lot of honor student in the chairs. All got it wrong except one. As Healy, Stoneface, got to my board he had to read it three times and finally went 'SHIT!!" told everyone to read chapter 5 and for me to get out in the hall. Everyone went 'Ooooo' as they thought I cheated and was about to get in trouble, again. He asks me and I tell him it was easy. He said he had problems with it the night before at home. Told me to meet him in the principals office at 3. The principal sees me at 3 and sez, Broderick, what did you do now. Healy finally comes along and drags me into the office. Tells the principal I am bored, put me in the advanced classes and he would take responsibility. The blood drained from the principals face. That one math problem and moment defined the rest of my life. Things came easy after that. I found all I had to do was pay attention. 4.0 in college. We do regents in NY, we were standing in the hall waiting for the grades to post. All my friends realized how much I changed and now the smart kids were talking to me. Healy come to post the Geometry Regents results. Sees me at the bottom of the stairs and tells me I F'd up. Everybody went 'Oooo' again. He sez I only got second highest in the state. I almost fainted. I ate 8 Barron's books cover to cover to get that.

So after this long and true story. I love math, I was a computer science major with a minor in math. It really meant, you took math from 8AM to 8PM in college. Funniest thing was where the physics teach said ALL formulas can be derived from F=MA and then proved it. Have forgotten it all. But I love math.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Damn you now I will not be able to sleep for one more week!!! (and I was starting to snooze on my keyboard....)

:hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf: :hunf:

(take that at the second degree please)

Bobbee

Sorry, I will mail over some Thanksgiving turkey. That will help you sleep.

PB73 Loc: Fremont, Ohio

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Bobbee

Thanks PB. I tell this story often. I came from a really bad neighborhood. We were all troublemakers and sort of like the Eastside Gang from the old TV shows. When I tell kids just starting out I tell them, "Find your Mr. Healy and change your stars. He is out there for you!!" The other person was Mr. Eisenberg. He was our computer teacher. We were the first school in NY to offer Computer Classes. I owe Mr. Eisenberg for where I got my computer love from. To think were I would be today if these two teachers and I did not cross paths.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Time for another pup, Rongno!

Bob Boner

I had a good algebra teacher in 9th grade, and decided then and there I wanted to be a math teacher. I earned a Ph.D in mathematics and taught mathematics in a small liberal arts college for 37 years. I loved every minute of it. We all have abilities in different areas. Some are photographers, some environmentalists, others are writers. Makes for good conversations.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Similar here. I was bored out of my skull in school most of the time. Ended up majoring in Mechanical Engineering Design and minor in Math. The math was a product of all the math classes I had to take to meet the engineering requirements.

One of the physics instructors gave us all of the formulas we'd need over the course of the semester. Some of those had to be combined or fiddled with to get the actual formula to solve a particular problem. So, we had an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of all these formulas.

Then I took a Dynamics class. The instructor told us he was going to write all of the equations we'd need for the semester on the board. So, get out your notebooks and take heed. He wrote F=ma. Put the chalk down. Crap, I knew we were in for it. F=m(dv/dt) ... etc.

I still enjoy math and still work problems. Why? Because I had to spend so much time learning that stuff, I'll be damned if I'm going to forget it.
--Bob

PB73 Loc: Fremont, Ohio

It's funny how some seemingly chance events determine our life's path. Yet, people don't talk about those events. Thanks for sharing yours.

RogueStorm Loc: East Sussex, England

I think I've got this sorted. You guys on the other side of the pond use the singular form of numerical instruction (math) whilst us, on the other side, use the plural, (maths). It might not help you to find 'x' but it's certainly helpful to know that there might be more than one of them.

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

To me, the second greatest invention after sliced bread, was the digital calculator. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven the first time I saw one of those puppies! Like you, I detested math as I just couldn't wrap my head around algebra and geometry. Found out many years out of school that I am dyslexic and apparently my particular form of dyslexia involves numbers. Never had a problem with words or writing, but trying to remember formulas just wasn't in the cards.

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

You guys and your added "s"...maths, Mancs, and so on - makes things more colourful.