The Wu-Tang Clan's IT Team Lead ([info]fiberpunk) wrote,
@ 2005-12-13 17:35:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
infirmities
You would think that someone taking three math classes a semester would be able to:

1. Remember the sine and cosine addition formulas without rederiving them from Euler's identity.
2. Remember the formula for the volume of a cone instead of just integrating the area of a circle with r going from 0 to h.
3. Multiply a matrix in his head without grunting and making weird hand gestures to represent the dot products.
4. Recall how to integrate by parts without differentiating f(x)g(x) and then using the linearity of integrals.

And yet, I cannot do any of those things.

I sometimes feel like I am faking it.

(5 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]cleotyne
2005-12-14 05:18 am UTC (link)
Don't be too hard on yourself. I COMMAND IT

(Reply to this)


[info]oilyrags
2005-12-14 01:22 pm UTC (link)
How you do it ain't important. Getting it done is important.

I have to assume you ain't faking it, cause I don't understand anything about items 1-4.

(Reply to this)


[info]androgy8
2005-12-25 09:17 pm UTC (link)
As long as you can figure it out, you're definitely not faking it. Actually, by figuring out these formulas from core concepts, you're showing more understanding than someone who simply memorizes them without any core understanding.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]androgy8
2005-12-25 09:36 pm UTC (link)
I should add: we had a question on our final exam about deriving the formula for the area of a sphere. In the end I got (-2/3) (pi) (r^3). Which I knew was wrong. I knew the formula, and it's obviously not negative. It's supposed to be (4/3)(pi)(r^3). But something went wrong when deriving it...knowing the formula beforehand got me nothing.

After class I redid the problem and determined my error. The weird thing about final exams: you only get credit for what you actually do in class.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]fiberpunk
2005-12-26 05:00 am UTC (link)
To be honest, I tend to get to that point and go, "Eh, accurate to within a corrective constant factor," and move on to other problems. I'm just sloppy enough with arithmetic that I expect that any number I write down on a test is likely to be at least a little wrong. Luckily, I don't have to work with numbers that much anymore.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(5 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…