So I started thinking about what math means in my life. I mean, I spent 2 years of my life, 4 quarters of calculus, 3 quarters of physics, and 2 quarters of Linear Algebra on it. But I can't remember a darn thing about it. I tried to help a pre-calculus student take a simple limit and couldn't remember at all how to do it.
I'm still the queen of basic Algebra and boy do I love Algebra. My heart finds peace in solving algebraic equations, no joke. I feel the world is right and calm in the moments that I'm solving for y. (And despite most Algebra students claiming they'll never use "this stuff" ever again, I use it weekly, if not daily, especially when solving ratios.)
But I can't remember how to solve the Maclaurin series of the cosine of X, which might very well have been my favorite equation of all time. (It finally explained where in the universe those seemingly magical trig table numbers came from...)
But I do remember the ideas and images that all those years of studying math (and science) gave me. (Although I loathe to admit that Chemistry had any lasting effect on me...)
When I think of the Gospel, and eternal progression, and striving for perfection, I immediately see an alternating harmonic series graph in my head. For example, let's say I'm trying to learn to be more forgiving. At first I'm too forgiving and let people step all over me. So I learn from this and try a different way. But I swing too far in the other direction and then am not forgiving
enough. And I learn from this, and swing back towards being too forgiving, but not quite as much as before. And on and on I go until I approach perfection, but never quite reach it in this life.
...where the X-axis is perfection and the Y-axis is level of forgiveness...
Or chemistry. (Shudder...) A friend recently posted a quote and I got to wondering, how much energy does it take to make someone go from annoyed to angry? Because of course I was thinking there was a quantifiable amount, just as there is a quantifiable amount of energy that is required to kick an orbiting electron up from one level to the next.
And who could forget these moments where I understood a child's game using physics?
I don't know what it means or how it helps me, or if it helps at all! But I'm inclined to think that if math is what I use to understand the emotions of life, thank goodness I took so much math because emotions confuse the heck out of me!
It reminds me of Sheldon's "Friendship Algorithm" which actually was very accurate! (And very helpful for Aspies! "Sheldon, there is no algorithm for making friends!" "Hear him out. If he's really on to something we could open a booth at ComicCon and make a fortune!") See the clip here.
LOA = Least Objectionable Activity
You definitely know you're a nerd, though, when you correct the math in math jokes. The one below just annoys me to bits. HO^3 = Hooo (because the ^3 only cubes the O). If you wanted to get Ho Ho Ho, you should have used parenthesis. (H0)^3 = Ho ho ho.
1 comments:
That's funny because I love basic algebra too! There is something about a nice easy perfect equation :)
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