[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Long life and calculus

Andrew MacIan andrew_macian at yahoo.com
Tue Feb 19 05:36:12 UTC 2002


Greetings from Andrew!

"Now take the result of the last integration, then
apply a left-hand limit to the integrand and...."

--- davewitley <dfrankiswork at netscape.net> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Andrew MacIan
> <andrew_macian at y...> wrote:
> > 
> > Reflecting that, after having flatlined in Nam,
> things
> > have been easy by comparison;
> > 
> > Reflecting that, after having given a lecture on
> > calculus that is so watered down that my old
> student
> > house's refectory soup would resemble track lube
> by
> > comaprison, that my non-majors students might just
> be
> > on the edge of grasping a couple of things;
> > 
> > Reflecting that, on balance, I really don't
> understand
> > the point of your question.
> > 
> Point? This is OT-Chatter!

Oh, sorry!  What *was* I thinking?

{grin}

> 
> I just thought that there might be an interesting
> story behind 
> the 'surprisingly long life'.

Just that every day since 72MAY27 (interesting
pseudo-palindrome, no?) has been a bonus, and thus
somewhat of a surprise.  Thirty years on, this is
still true.

> 
> I am an old cynic, so I also think that when people
> dangle phrases 
> like that, they are itching to give the story behind
> them.

Understood.  My cynicism is pretty much set in
ferrocrete as well.  Sorry to disappoint, if I did.

> 
> I am an obliging wide-eyed person who is curious in
> every sense of 
> the word, so I like to give people the satisfaction.
> 
> But, if your life is in fact boring, please accept
> my apologies for 
> maligning it.

Not at all! As Rincewind has frequently observed,
boring is (at times) highly desirable.

However, I don't have the same problem with potatoes
that he seems to have developed {grin}.


> 
> David
> 
> PS I remember that 'given epsilon > 0, we can find a
> delta > 0 such 
> that...' stuff too.  I even think it's interesting.

Bully!  Do anything with it?  I'm mostly an algebraist
these days, category/topos theory and all that....

Cheers,

Drieux


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