Dialogue de sourds about mathematics: Are exponents substractions in disguise?

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Patryn sees the ² as representing the operation "multiply by y"... and since multiplication is commutative, order doesn't matter. It could read ²2y, as long as we understand ² to mean "multiply by y", without changing the result.

Exactly.

And it's true in most cases though, I must now admit, not all.

Going through my old Calculus texts tonight, and I haven't found a way around some questions raised in this thread. So, I take it back.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Exactly.

And it's true in most cases though, I must now admit, not all.

Going through my old Calculus texts tonight, and I haven't found a way around some questions raised in this thread. So, I take it back.

No worries 95% (or more) of the stuff you said was completely right. It was just that I wouldn't have expected anyone to defend that particular premise, since I knew it was wrong.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Exactly.

And it's true in most cases though, I must now admit, not all.

Going through my old Calculus texts tonight, and I haven't found a way around some questions raised in this thread. So, I take it back.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I hate doing calculus with a passion. It's not just a normal hate. No, I despise it. It pains me. I would rather have a root canal (and I have had one before) than do calculus for an equivalent length of time.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I hate doing calculus with a passion. It's not just a normal hate. No, I despise it. It pains me. I would rather have a root canal (and I have had one before) than do calculus for an equivalent length of time.

But calculus itself is really easy. Its the darned algebra that goes along with it that gets annoying...

And then the Fourier transform convolutions and Laplacian eigenvectors, inserted into the Legendre function modeling a Partial Third Order Nonlinear Differential Equation that use it.

 

[ThirdWizard]

But calculus itself is really easy. Its the darned algebra that goes along with it that gets annoying...

And then the Fourier transform convolutions and Laplacian eigenvectors, inserted into the Legendre function modeling a Partial Third Order Nonlinear Differential Equation that use it.

Mostly it was the fact that I had to remember many many individual formulas. And, yes, the algebra mixed in is harder to calculate than the actual calculus, I'll agree to that. I hate memorizing things I'll never use again, however. That was also the only thing I disliked about Chemistry as well, all those things you have to memorize. I can solve my way through things fairly well, and when they make sense, then I can remember them much easier. Maybe if he had shown proofs then I would have had a better grasp for it, but then unfortunately my dislike of proofs would have ruined it for me.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I hate doing calculus with a passion. It's not just a normal hate. No, I despise it. It pains me. I would rather have a root canal (and I have had one before) than do calculus for an equivalent length of time.

Really? I rather liked it.

Granted, it's been awhile since I needed it, but there you are.

Of course, part of this might be because of the surroundings in which I was most heavily learning Calculus. For 18.01 (I took 18.014, Calculus with Extra Proofs), I was in a class with two of my fraternity brothers. We'd stay up until god-awful hours doing problem sets and BSing.

Then, in 18.02 (I took the normal version), I was taking it along with 8.02 (Physics 2): Intro to Electromagnetics and Electrostatics. At that point, it was a pretty fun game to take calculus problems and turn them end about into physics problems (Ahah ... That's not just any equation to solve! That's the equation for dropping a closed rectangle of wire with dimensions X by Y through a magnetic field, strength Z, solving for the current! The answer looks like this ...) and vice versa. They were, in fact, two of the easiest college courses I've ever taken because of the heavy overlap and interdependency. I also had some kick-ass profs.

If only my 18.03 prof had spoken better English ...

 

[ThirdWizard]

Really? I rather liked it.

Perhaps if I had seen some useful applications by taking physics, I would not have felt so badly about it. I was taking Calc I at the same time as Intelligent Systems, for which class I got to program a robot to run an obsticle course on its own and create a simple yet surprisingly effective neural network. For me, no comparison.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Really? I rather liked it.

Granted, it's been awhile since I needed it, but there you are.

Of course, part of this might be because of the surroundings in which I was most heavily learning Calculus. For 18.01 (I took 18.014, Calculus with Extra Proofs), I was in a class with two of my fraternity brothers. We'd stay up until god-awful hours doing problem sets and BSing.

Then, in 18.02 (I took the normal version), I was taking it along with 8.02 (Physics 2): Intro to Electromagnetics and Electrostatics. At that point, it was a pretty fun game to take calculus problems and turn them end about into physics problems (Ahah ... That's not just any equation to solve! That's the equation for dropping a closed rectangle of wire with dimensions X by Y through a magnetic field, strength Z, solving for the current! The answer looks like this ...) and vice versa. They were, in fact, two of the easiest college courses I've ever taken because of the heavy overlap and interdependency. I also had some kick-ass profs.

If only my 18.03 prof had spoken better English ...

If you didn't have to take 8.02T (Technology Enabled Active Learning) then you are a lucky MITer indeed.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Perhaps if I had seen some useful applications by taking physics, I would not have felt so badly about it. I was taking Calc I at the same time as Intelligent Systems, for which class I got to program a robot to run an obsticle course on its own and create a simple yet surprisingly effective neural network. For me, no comparison.

Yeah, that's one good thing about the GIRs to which Patryn has referred

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

If you didn't have to take 8.02T (Technology Enabled Active Learning) then you are a lucky MITer indeed.

I was out of there before they included that one.

My roommate took 8.02X - and he seemed to have more fun, though, seeming to support the general "Extra letters are good, extra numbers are bad" rule.