Quotes from my multivariable calculus class, fall 2001, courtesy of KatieBerry
- “this is why I’m a mathematician and not an engineer”
- “it gets horribly painful very fast”
- “which is sort of a modern miracle”
- “all I can tell you is don’t mess it up. because then you’ll get the wronganswer.”
- “I can take derivatives all day… and all night”
- “you know… 6 instead of 9… you can’t complain.”
- “if it’s a cup openingup, we get a minimum. if it’s a cup opening down we get a maximum. if weget a saddle, then we get a saddle.”
- “you can call it whatever you want, but DID HE HAVE A PICTURE OF A MONKEY?!”
- “not math class… this is ‘joyful thinking’”
- “you can think of it as a plane kissing a sphere… or 2 spheres…”
- “I hate to say this since this is a math class, but this is something relevant.”
-“but I’l just make upa function, so we wont REALLY be going anything useful… so we’ll be okay”
- “lambda’s gone. it does NOT make me joyful.”
- “because I’m SO lazy.”
- “now I broke the chalk myself”
- “you get pretty sick of these pretty fast.”
- “I’m not a big fan of integrals in general. some people like them. I usedto like them. now I’m old and bitter.”
- and then I can’t go any farther, because I don’t know where I am.”
- “please don’t tell the dean.” (after not returning exams 15 hours later)
- “I’ve seen most of your monkeys!”
- “I take it back… there are a few of you that can mock me.”
- “so that’s a stupid example.”
- “my brother is an economist… I have issues.”
- “what I am writing makes no sense… but we can remember it this way.”
- “I need… a week off!”
- “it is easy… but it’s even easierNOT doing it… so why are we doing it?!”
- “half an hour and then I’m on vacation… whaHOO!”
- “I remember the first time they explained this to me… and I didn’t getit. I remember the second time they explained this to me… and I didn’tget it. Now I sort of get it. sort of. sometimes.
- “and by little tiny, I mean infinitesimally small.”
- “what do I care about these little tiny paddle wheels?”
- “what would we LIKE it to be, so we don’t have to do any work? zero.”
- “WE HATE WORK!”
- “even today, that’s not zero.” (referring to “4.”)
- “I knew what it is, I just haven’t had enough to drink, so that’s why Isaid it.” (goes to water cup)
- “well, that seems like a good place to stop. I can’t beat that.” (whenthe kid walked in…)
- “there’s no such thing as heightH.I’ve had professors say heightH.it’s not a word!”
- “so that’s fairly stupid…”
- “maybe I don’t have a rectangular tent… maybe I have one of those coolround tents!”
- “alright! one person’s ready to learn! that’s all I need!”
- “it is in fact ‘wacked’” ? “hasn’t made it to textbooks yet”
- “don’t email me: ‘I got the answer 42. is that right?”
- “ok. whatever.”
- “yeah… we’re gonna iterate.”
- “alright. z. CRAZY!”
- “it’s like a solid chunk of bowl.”
- “I walked into my class this morning and had this horrible flash ? is thisthe wrong day?”
- “the joker got here before me.”
- “you can integrate that by parts or charts!”
- “a good example of the miraculous power of the cross product.”
- “it IS like a party in here.”
- “perhaps it even gives us a torus…. mmmmm donut.”
- “it’s like a jelly filled donut, but they suck the jelly out.”
- “that’s NOT a good attitude.”
- “rats.”
- “I always sort of liked these. I don’t really know why. I think it hasto do with the name. I mean, it sounds pretty cool, like something outof star wars… I need that flux integral of my vector field.”
- “and I wanna catch some fishies.”
- “this is a little bit amazing.”
- “you guys… this is SO cool!”
- “look what we get back!”
- “square by which I mean cube.”
- “you can always think of this as fluid.”
- “I don’t really pretend to understand this…”
- “one of the crowning moments of human intellectual history.”
- “but this bit pleases me.”
- “yes… no… ?.” “okay.”
- “if all I have is this boundary curve then WHO KNOWSS?!”
- “no, no” “he puts his left foot in.”
- “and this is true… I tested it last night. though I didn’t have a ducky.”
- “that’s right! there’s an episode of the simpsons about that!”
- “if the universe turned out to be donut shaped…”
- “I’m a mathematician, not an ENGLISHtician!”
- “keep in mind this wouldn’t be true if we were living on the planet ofthe donuts”
- “I just keep picturing santa hats”
- “if you’re happy, I’m happy. I have NO idea what you’re talking about.”
- “the fact that this is the only thing I can think of doesn’t really qualifyas a proof.”
- “it’s not necessarily true that either of these is easy to compute, butat least you’ve learned a secret of the universe. which is some consolation.”
- “I can actually do this one in my head… since I’m a classically trainedmathematician.”
- “we will divide and conquer!”
- “this is how much I care about you… that I’m willing to humiliate myselfin public.”
- “not that I’m not STILL bitter!”
- “yeah, well I could say it’s aCadbury crème egg with the crème missing!”
- “I hope these technical terms aren’t too much for you”
- “eeeew, there’s gunk on my chalkboard! lousy engineers…”
- “ha! ha! good one, registrar!”
- “I, too, didn’t always go to class… but I used to be smart back then, soit was OK.”