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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Sunday mornings with a cup of tea

The 21st was good, of course. My speech went down well and it was nice to catch up with some old friends. The venue was a little cold, but the birthday girl looked absolutely radiant :)

Being tired, I spent most of today doing housework instead of maths; nonetheless I've got the assignment about half done. Turns out I didn't need the properties of a vector space for question 2, after all. After lorne had helped me figure out how to interpret the phrase "only if", that one was done quite easily. I wish mathematicians weren't so free with alternative notations for implication. If something implies something else, why can't they just say so instead of messing around with words like "necessary"? The confusion thus generated is entirely unnecessary.

Question 3 had some interesting games with circle geometry, and for question 4 I'm shamelessly ripping off my answer from the same assignment last year. This wouldn't be obvious to the casual observer, because I'm using a different coordinate system this time around. It just makes more sense to think of a fixed-length straight line in polar coordinates.

My notes to date are now filed safely in a clearfile for quick reference throughout the trimester. I won't put anything in my home ringbinder system until after the exam. It makes for a lot of stuff to carry around, but bitter experience has taught me that it's much safer to have my notes with me at all times - that way I know I'll never find myself urgently needing to look up something that I've left at home. With no textbook for this course and many of Chris's notations being non-standard [so that the internet becomes a poor resource], my own notes are of paramount importance.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Teh Miracle!

Gael said...

Earlier today I would have sworn it was Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, but no, it is indeed The Miracle. Star!

Bruce Hoult said...

hmm ... I wonder if confusion about the meaning of "only if" can arise from some sort of instinctual conflation of implication with causation?

Looking at the truth tables should be sufficient to clear that up. (but not necessarily necessary ;-)

Bruce Hoult said...

Hmmm ... that's interesting. Perhaps you'll be able to relate.

I got up this morning 9ish, checked the intarweb, and then was feeling blah and lay down on the couch under a blanket and next thing I knew it was 1:30 and still feeling blah. Did totally nothing all day then just managed to persuade myself to go to the supermarket about 8:30 because I needed stuff for the week. Stopped at a house in Linden on the way to pick something up and declined a cup of tea because that would have meant talking and I was just way too lacking in energy for that. Stumbled around the Pak'n'Save and then found myself somehow back at home and made myself a nice cup of espresso as I now had milk, which I'd been out of since I think Thursday night or Friday morning. Drank coffee while checking blogs (and making previous comment).

Ten minutes later and I am *awake* and bouncy and feeling like doing stuff! And desperately in need of a big plate of salad with steak -- which I conveniently have the ingredients for.

I know I didn't have any coffee on Saturday or Friday, but I did on Thursday.

Do you think I need to cut down?

(steak & salad now being wolfed down ... yum!)

Gael said...

Looking at the truth tables should be sufficient to clear that up.

Nah, that's the problem - the phrase "only if" by itself doesn't obviously correlate with a truth table. Every time I work with it I have to go through this painful process of telling myself I'll go outside tomorrow only if it's sunny. Without that I just can't see which type of implication is at work.

Do you think I need to cut down?

No, you need to cut up! Two consecutive days without coffee is far too many! ;)

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