Hmm. . .I guess I need to repeat 8th grade, or at least spend some time with Khan Academy. I recognize that as the sort of equation I once was able to solve (though more in high school than 8th grade, I think), but I wouldn't know where to start anymore. Some corner of my brain is telling me that it's a quadratic equation, and that that identification has something to do with the presence of the square root sign, but that's about it.
I suspect, however, that she's meant to be an embodiment of the math professor (quoted recently by OPH, I think, but I can't find it) who said, on CM or perhaps RYS, that summer is all about "math, beautiful math," with no students. And hey, at least the math-lover is female.
That said, I'll note that this post comes immediately after one from Cynic, emerging from a difficult semester with a promise of reports to follow. So not everybody has checked out for the summer; some of us are teaching during the summer, and others are just beginning to feel recovered enough from the spring semester to talk/write about it.
That's it! But I wasn't remembering the original, I was remembering somebody quoting it here more recently (but not remembering exactly enough to search effectively for it; I was thinking the mathematics was/were beautiful, or maybe lovely).
What's even worse is that's an 8th-grade equation.
ReplyDeleteHmm. . .I guess I need to repeat 8th grade, or at least spend some time with Khan Academy. I recognize that as the sort of equation I once was able to solve (though more in high school than 8th grade, I think), but I wouldn't know where to start anymore. Some corner of my brain is telling me that it's a quadratic equation, and that that identification has something to do with the presence of the square root sign, but that's about it.
DeleteIf it is the root(s) of the quadratic (and that's what it looks like), then I think she's got it wrong.
DeleteI suspect, however, that she's meant to be an embodiment of the math professor (quoted recently by OPH, I think, but I can't find it) who said, on CM or perhaps RYS, that summer is all about "math, beautiful math," with no students. And hey, at least the math-lover is female.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'll note that this post comes immediately after one from Cynic, emerging from a difficult semester with a promise of reports to follow. So not everybody has checked out for the summer; some of us are teaching during the summer, and others are just beginning to feel recovered enough from the spring semester to talk/write about it.
You are GOOD!
DeleteFriday, May 5, 2006
summer = research!!
woot!
no students
no administration
just sweet sweet mathematics
That's it! But I wasn't remembering the original, I was remembering somebody quoting it here more recently (but not remembering exactly enough to search effectively for it; I was thinking the mathematics was/were beautiful, or maybe lovely).
DeleteIt's summer: did everyone go away?
ReplyDelete