Uh-oh, in the weeds already. After I finished the hysterical laughing part, the 7 hour, two page homework assignment began.
There was the 90 minutes of teaching myself the astronomy software program (that we were told not to rely on to do the homework--more laughing). Then the time looking up fun facts of scientific notation, that I went ahead and did the long way instead so I could see how the math magic happens with all those zeroes and exponents. Then the drawing of the earth and imaginary planes of reference with wonky angles and imaginary horizons and trying to use common sense instead of reading Greek letters. Some tears, a bowl of cereal, and back at it.
I want the Carl Sagan Experience, damn it! Michio Kaku doesn't ruin a romantic night looking into Deep Fields by whipping out his Texas Instrument. I'm into Big Screen Astrophysics, there's people who can be hired to plot out this swarm of ant-like troll-script, don't bother me with this crap, I've got massive theory to polish in my mind.
Professors must dread people like me taking their specialty courses. This may truly wind up being a pass/fail course for me. Why not a "Science for Right-Brainers" or "Astronomy for Painters" or "Physics for Philosophers"? In perspective, the writing assignments for my other classes feel like email letters to my best friends. But I go on too long...
It was funny to be sailing along in the midst of the Iliad this morning, admiring the smoothness of the translation, thrilled to be using the same copy I used in 1979 in my Great Books class my freshman year. Which shows that a person can expand the neuro-synapses after years of dry-dock, only reading corporate manual jargonese and lighter non-fiction bestsellers, and be able to drink in the un-watered wine of classic Greek epics. Only to hit the rocks in the afternoon with astronomy. This Renaissance Woman program demands a high price of her aspirants, math entering into the process again. There just has to be a trick to this, some smoke and mirrors so I can plunge the swords into the basket and arrive at the white dove flying into the footlights. I mean, there really is, right? Silk scarves, presto-change-o, abracadabra, alacazam! Trig-o-nom-it-tree!! Whammo!
Battle cry of the Dilettante.
Monday, April 14, 2008
What's Math Got to Do With It?
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2 comments:
When I was a professor I *loved* getting students like you -- who hadn't absorbed the academic culture of my subject but who were willing to bring their raw intelligence and interest to a new thing. That's what teaching is all about.
Truly humble thanks---there are 7 or 8 women in this class that have started to sit together so we can be a mass of headache faces when the prof is on the trig trapeze, and he added a math primer appendix to the online class file for us to print out. When in the wilderness, the lost form their own search party.
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