Although, I have to say, there isn’t much point to any of those fields, if you can’t communicate your findings/theories/knowledge to a future generation… (But I’m not good enough to do a comic of that…)
(EDIT: actually entered the photos, both for better user experience and a test with some other things I am working on.)
I am a math guy, and I enjoy doing math. So I like Pi, I think it’s a very interesting and amazing number, however, I also really like pie. For me, Pi Day is about celebrating the Greek Letter Pi, but also about baking pie.
Check back later today for today’s pie baking adventure.
I am an information parasite. I thrive on information. I sit and absorb as much info as my curious little ears can take in. It’s not all relevant. It’s not all useful. This doesn’t matter though, it’s information and thats what I need. I don’t always even remember the info I take in, but the important part was that for an instant, if only an instant, I had that knowledge.
I came to this conclusion today while walking back to my dorm room. Last semester I finished up my math minor, but I had not taken Linear Algebra yet. If I took Linear Algebra this semester I would have to pay extra because I would be in “credit overload” with 20 or 21 credits. It would also give me a lot of homework to work on. Going into this semester I saw that I was going to have a bit more free time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and have already told myself I want to use this time to improve my photography, writing skills, website design and other projects I wanted to get done.
So I decided to audit the class. So basically I’m taking Linear Algebra without paying for the credits, doing any homework or taking any tests/quizzes. (Although I do foresee myself participating in this class since it’s a small class of eight people and the information is interesting.)
The big thing that struck me though, is my motivation for taking this class is almost purely curiosity. I’m not getting any credits for it and I can’t get credits for it if I would change my mind. I’m not entirely sure if I know what this means, if it means anything at all, or if this is worth thinking over in more depth.
I’m thinking that it comes down to a love of learning. I love to learn new things, I like hearing about new technologies, I find it interesting to look into things I know nothing about. The downfall to this is that I find myself knowing a very little about a very lot of stuff, which then becomes muddled in my mind and I end up knowing nothing about a lot, but I do remember that I knew something at one time.
This may require some rethinking.
I recently posted my equation for figuring out your current level of sanity. (See here.) As I have been thinking about it, however, I have thought that it would be best to generalize it so that it’s usable for people who are not in school. (The whole “desired grade minus current grade” thing didn’t sit right for me.)When trying to generalize this equation, however, I have discovered that this equation doesn’t seem to work as well as I first thought. I’m not saying that it is completely void, but I think it is good to note any inconsistencies or criticisms of my work. My original equation looked like this:
Which I rationalized by saying that as the days of the semester came to a close, the students go insane because of all the homework and projects and tests that they have to deal with. (Stress from grades is accounted for as well.) This seems to work pretty well, I had several students tell me that they like the formula.
When you break it down to the most generic form, you find that it is simply:
This also made some sort of sense. The more work that needs to be done, and the less time that is left to do the work produces the lowest feeling of sanity. (That is, the largest feeling of insanity.) On a side note, people are not always honest or accurate with predictions of work and/or time. So perhaps the equation should read more like:
But back to the generic equation, anyone with an understanding of physics should quickly recognize that:
Which means that power and sanity are inverse each other.
But this doesn’t make any sense at all. The more power you have, the more work you can get done per time period, the less sane you will be (or feel)?
My current conclusion is that the equation should not deal with the amount of work that a person needs to do in a certain time, but maybe something along the line of the number of events happening within a given time period. Each test, project and paper are then classified as events, but the equation is still generic enough to be applied to non-school-going people as well as holidays and vacations.
When I get my equation tweaked I’ll post it here. Until then, let me know what you think.
UPDATE: I have discovered some issues with this equation, see my new posting here. I was thinking the other week, and developed the following formula for your current level of sanity. The main goal was to model sanity from a student’s perspective, but the formula may be tweaked for other occupations of lifestyles. Enjoy!
Math is like a roller coaster. It has high points and it has low points. Somedays everything works out tremendously nice and it’s the best thrill ever. Other days it’s a terrifying plunge in the dark that makes the stomach churn and the mind think, “Why on earth am I doing this? I’ll never do this again.”
I’ve had a bit of both today. It’s been up and down. It took me forever to get started, but when I did get going I got a few problems done, which I think is pretty good. Then I finished an assignment, and the downtime between assignments the feeling of finishing the work, and then trying to get started on the next assignment is the killer. It feels like I’m not getting anywhere. And it was during that break that I checked my email and found my math take home test sitting in my inbox, gleefully announcing that I had 7 days to finish it.
Unfortunately, the test is highly based on the 3 math assignments I have not yet completed, so the question is, which comes first the chicken or the egg? Do I do the assignments or the test?
I did, however, get an amazing kick out of a short little conversation I had today, it went something like this:
Guy: “Hey! What are you working on?”
Me: “Math.”
Guy: “Oh, what math?”
Me: “Real Analysis.”
Guy: “…oh… …what major are you?”
Me: “Communications.”
Guy: “… oh… … …”
Man, I just love that response from people. The class is almost worth it just for that.
Anyway, back to math…
It has come to my attention that Pi day is coming up! That’s right, 3-14 will be this upcoming Wednesday! But what good is Pi day, if you don’t have an “i 8 Sum Pi” Shirt?
Everybody who is anybody has an “i 8 Sum Pi” Shirt, and you need one, and soon.
For all of those people who have an “i 8 Sum Pi” Shirt, be sure to wear it this coming Wednesday!
Spread the word, Pi out!
