I am the greatest calculus tutor of all time!

[Frozen Sooner]

So, yeah, I've been tutoring this girl who's a senior at UAA in business calc all semester. Mind you, it's been 15 years since I last took calc one.

At the beginning of the semester, she was having massive problems with x^0=1 and x(x)(x)=x^3 and (1)(x)=x.

I am proud to announce that after her second mid-term, she is sitting at a solid 93 in the class.

[OUAndy1807]

Calculus or business calculus?

[Jimminy Crimson]

Link to her Facebook or MySpace page?

TIA!

[Frozen Sooner]

Well, business calc. F all them trig functions, mang!

I don't think you understand the magnitude of the mountain I was climbing here. We're talking someone who didn't have a firm grasp on algebra.

[SoonerInKCMO]

How can she have 2 mid-terms? :confused:

[SoonerInKCMO]

She's hot, ain't she?

[Frozen Sooner]

How can she have 2 mid-terms? :confused:

Don't know about you, but I had a bunch of math-type classes that had two mid-terms.

[Frozen Sooner]

She's hot, ain't she?

Yes

[GottaHavePride]

Way to go, Froze.

Dammit. I mean Mike.

[1stTimeCaller]

you dummy. pie are round, cornbread are square.


I got < nothing

[OUHOMER]

(x)(x)

[royalfan5]

you dummy. pie are round, cornbread are square.


I got < nothing
round cornbread>Square cornbread in my experience

[sanantoniosooner]

round cornbread>Square cornbread in my experience
Why would we trust a NU fan on any subject related to this?

[royalfan5]

Why would we trust a NU fan on any subject related to this?
You don't think we have plenty of cornbread in state that grows as much corn as we do?

[sanantoniosooner]

interesting.

How could I have overlooked that?:rolleyes:

;)

[Frozen Sooner]

Yeah, right. Like Nebraskans have figured out such high-tech concepts as the mill yet.

:D

[sanantoniosooner]

My brother has informed me that sarcasm is the most evil form of humor more than once.

[royalfan5]

Yeah, right. Like Nebraskans have figured out such high-tech concepts as the mill yet.

:D
Considering one of the nations biggest milling concerns is from Nebraska, I'd say we mastered it quite well.

[sanantoniosooner]

Nebraska lost it's sense of humor when they got rid of Solich.

[Frozen Sooner]

Apparently so. Sheesh.

And I'll bet that milling concern is run by Iowans. :D

[SoonerInKCMO]

Considering one of the nations biggest milling concerns is from Nebraska, I'd say we mastered it quite well.

Meh. ConAgra is pwn3d by Cargill. :D

[royalfan5]

Nebraska lost it's sense of humor when they got rid of Solich.
You don't joke about Corn with Nebraskans, it isn't a joking matter to us.

[Frozen Sooner]

How many types of corn are there?

Meallions!

Yeah, OK, I can see why you wouldn't want to joke about corn.

[royalfan5]

Meh. ConAgra is pwn3d by Cargill. :D
Yep, but just consider all the ethanol plants in Nebraska which are at their heart a mill, plus Bunge's and Frito-Lay's operations in-state. Nebraska mills a lot of corn, and we do it quite well.

[hurricane'bone]

Well, business calc. F all them trig functions, mang!

I don't think you understand the magnitude of the mountain I was climbing here. We're talking someone who didn't have a firm grasp on algebra.


Do you have a firm grasp on her mountains?

[Frozen Sooner]

Do you have a firm grasp on her mountains?
no

[ultimatesooner1]

damn, I had calc 1-4 and don't remember any of it

[Frozen Sooner]

It's amazing how much of it comes back. I took Calc 1-4, Linear, and Engine I. There's no way in hell I could do most of it if you asked me, but give me a few minutes with the textbook and I'm good.

No, the textbook doesn't have a hole in it.

[hurricane'bone]

no


pfft.

Then you didn't teach her the quotient rule the right way.

[Paperclip]

You don't joke about Corn with Nebraskans, it isn't a joking matter to us.

You call it corn. We call it maize.

(You must be at least 35 to get that reference.)

[Frozen Sooner]

pfft.

Then you didn't teach her the quotient rule the right way.

Heh. Nice. Actually, believe it or not, she's rock-solid on the product and quotient rule. In fact, I made her derive the quotient rule from the product rule so she'd remember them. :D

[Frozen Sooner]

You call it corn. We call it maize.

(You must be at least 35 to get that reference.)
I
AM
CORNHOLIO!


And I'm 32.

[Paperclip]

Well, except that Beavis wasn't the first to say that. He was referencing the same earlier event I was.

[Frozen Sooner]

References that predate Beavis and Butthead are invalid. :mad:

[soonerboomer93]

Have you solved for Y yet?

[Frozen Sooner]

Yes.

Unfortunately, for me y is always (-1)^(1/2).

[Ike]

Do you have a firm grasp on her mountains?no


then you cannot make the claim that you are the greatest calc tutor of all time. The evidence just does not support that claim

;)

[SicEmBaylor]

Mike,
You want a real challenge you should try to teach ME calculus. The reaction of every math teacher I've ever had has been, "Well thank God you're going into politics..."

I seriously can not do simple algebra. I did okay in geometry, but my guess is that I've forgotten every bit of that. Math is just way beyond my ability to comprehend or understand.

[Ike]

Mike,
You want a real challenge you should try to teach ME calculus. The reaction of every math teacher I've ever had has been, "Well thank God you're going into politics..."

I seriously can not do simple algebra. I did okay in geometry, but my guess is that I've forgotten every bit of that. Math is just way beyond my ability to comprehend or understand.


If that was the reaction of your math teachers, then they should be shot. People should not be allowed to go into politics without a firm grasp of mathematics. It only makes it easier for loonies to hoodwink them.

And if I ever hear of you running for office and citing "fuzzy math", I'm going to demand that you prove it.

Oh, and I'll teach ya some calc if you can send some of that money you pulled from the credit card scam you ran :D

[OCUDad]

(politicans) + (math) = (the public) - (money)

[SicEmBaylor]

If that was the reaction of your math teachers, then they should be shot. People should not be allowed to go into politics without a firm grasp of mathematics. It only makes it easier for loonies to hoodwink them.

And if I ever hear of you running for office and citing "fuzzy math", I'm going to demand that you prove it.

Oh, and I'll teach ya some calc if you can send some of that money you pulled from the credit card scam you ran :D

It reminds me somewhat of taking driving lessons. I took them from this black fellow in Muskogee who has taught a major portion of that city how to drive over the years. Well, he told us all the first day of class, "I've never met a kid I couldn't teach to drive." On the last day of class he said, "I'm sorry I just can't teach you how to drive. I'll tell you what..you tell me what kind of car you'll be driving so when I see it I can get myself off the road and just let you safely pass."

Anyway, surely a truly excellent politician would know his or her limitations and choose the very best mathematicians to delegate number solving mombojumbo to.

[Ike]

It reminds me somewhat of taking driving lessons. I took them from this black fellow in Muskogee who has taught a major portion of that city how to drive over the years. Well, he told us all the first day of class, "I've never met a kid I couldn't teach to drive." On the last day of class he said, "I'm sorry I just can't teach you how to drive. I'll tell you what..you tell me what kind of car you'll be driving so when I see it I can get myself off the road and just let you safely pass."

Anyway, surely a truly excellent politician would know his or her limitations and choose the very best mathematicians to delegate number solving mombojumbo to.

The problem with that line of thinking is twofold. 1) Mathematicians are smart people. In such a position, some might be inclined to cook the numbers such that you hear what you wanted to hear in the first place, thus ensuring their job security. 2) Mathematicians are smart people. Some of them have agendas. They might try to sell you on something and show you that the math "proves" it knowing that you have no clue what they have just proven.

If you can't even understand the math at a basic level (like algebra and calc) it would be easy to be taken in by bad math.

[Vaevictis]

I never bothered learning the quotient rule. I just rewrite as a negative exponent and use the product rule.

If she ever starts having issues with remembering all of the trigonometric derivatives and anti-derivatives, Euler's is the way to go.

Remembering the derivative and anti-derivative of tangent is hard. But the summation of several exponentials? Easy. :)

[Vaevictis]

Anyway, surely a truly excellent politician would know his or her limitations and choose the very best mathematicians to delegate number solving mombojumbo to.

If you don't know how to analyze numbers on at least a basic level, you'll end up having to put an awful lot of trust in an awful lot of people doing the data compilation and analysis for you.

At that point, they're the man behind the curtain, so to speak.

[Frozen Sooner]

I never bothered learning the quotient rule. I just rewrite as a negative exponent and use the product rule.

If she ever starts having issues with remembering all of the trigonometric derivatives and anti-derivatives, Euler's is the way to go.

Remembering the derivative and anti-derivative of tangent is hard. But the summation of several exponentials? Easy. :)

That's the beautiful thing about business calc-no trig functions. At all.

[Ike]

That's the beautiful thing about business calc-no trig functions. At all.


and they get away with having the word calculus in the title?

[yermom]

and they get away with having the word calculus in the title?

heh.

no wonder so many technical majors end up in business ;)

[Frozen Sooner]

I thought the same thing, but hey-they integrate and take derivatives and stuff. Just not of trig functions.

I'm not sure why the powers that be decided at some point that people with business degrees wouldn't need to know about trig functions.

[royalfan5]

I thought the same thing, but hey-they integrate and take derivatives and stuff. Just not of trig functions.

I'm not sure why the powers that be decided at some point that people with business degrees wouldn't need to know about trig functions.
I know, I come across triangles in my ag econ stuff all the time, but I don't know what to do with them.

[Frozen Sooner]

Give 'em to someone who took a real calculus class? ;)

No, seriously, I would think that the sin and cos functions would be of particular interest to economists. That, in fact, is why I took the full calc series instead of just doing the business math sequence.

[Vaevictis]

I know, I come across triangles in my ag econ stuff all the time, but I don't know what to do with them.

You don't worry about trig functions because of triangles. You worry about them because they're periodic. Any periodic function can be expressed as a summation of sines and cosines.

Do you not have any economic behavior in agriculture which is cyclical?

(or were you being serious? My sarcasm detector is so f*cked up.)

[royalfan5]

You don't worry about trig functions because of triangles. You worry about them because they're periodic. Any periodic function can be expressed as a summation of sines and cosines.

Do you not have any economic behavior in agriculture which is cyclical?

(or were you being serious? My sarcasm detector is so f*cked up.)
I was kidding. All agriculture is cyclical, which is why were are going to have 4 dollar corn next year, and Dean will be getting bunch less for his cattle.

[Vaevictis]

All agriculture is cyclical, which is why were are going to have 4 dollar corn next year, and Dean will be getting bunch less for his cattle.

Yeah, I figured, which is why my reaction was approximately :confused:

[royalfan5]

Give 'em to someone who took a real calculus class? ;)

No, seriously, I would think that the sin and cos functions would be of particular interest to economists. That, in fact, is why I took the full calc series instead of just doing the business math sequence.
I just a pretend economist, I just sit there and make up hypothesis about why the breakfast cereal industry operates above constant returns to scale, and try to avoid quasi-rents.

[Vaevictis]

constant returns to scale, and try to avoid quasi-rents.

You know what I love about specialized professions?

All the bull**** terms they make up to complicate matters, just so people not in the profession can't understand what the **** is going on.

(Engineers do this too. ;) )

[royalfan5]

You know what I love about specialized professions?

All the bull**** terms they make up to complicate matters, just so people not in the profession can't understand what the **** is going on.

(Engineers do this too. ;) )
So do people in finance.

[Frozen Sooner]

I just a pretend economist, I just sit there and make up hypothesis about why the breakfast cereal industry operates above constant returns to scale, and try to avoid quasi-rents.

Admit it, you just made all that up. :D

[royalfan5]

Admit it, you just made all that up. :D
I wish I had, but the breakfast cereal part was a question on my strategic issues in Agribusiness Midterm.

[IB4OU2]

I wish I had, but the breakfast cereal part was a question on my strategic issues in Agribusiness Midterm.

Wow! Not any "How do you make a cornflake?" questions?

[BeetDigger]

I wish I had, but the breakfast cereal part was a question on my strategic issues in Agribusiness Midterm.


heh. If only you knew who I work for. We don't make breakfast cereal however.

[royalfan5]

Wow! Not any "How do you make a cornflake?" questions?
Nope, lots of game theory though.

[royalfan5]

heh. If only you knew who I work for. We don't make breakfast cereal however.
Is it evil incarnate, ADM?

[BeetDigger]

Is it evil incarnate, ADM?


That is your only guess and the answer is NO.

[Ike]

Nope, lots of game theory though.


So you studied by playing NCAA Football 2006 for days on end then?

[royalfan5]

So you studied by playing NCAA Football 2006 for days on end then?
Not quite, I did decide I hate John Nash though.:twinkies:

[Frozen Sooner]

I always just wrote "Prisoner's Dilemma" whenever they asked me a game theory question. Seemed to work out OK.

AHHHH! I just had a Nash Equilibria flashback! GUNS! BUTTER! ISOQUANTS!

[royalfan5]

I always just wrote "Prisoner's Dilemma" whenever they asked me a game theory question. Seemed to work out OK.

AHHHH! I just had a Nash Equilibria flashback! GUNS! BUTTER! ISOQUANTS!
I had to do game theory with dairy production options. I realized I may have overreached when the Ag Econ grad student did something way simpler.

[Frozen Sooner]

I had to do game theory with dairy production options. I realized I may have overreached when the Ag Econ grad student did something way simpler.

LaGrange multipliers!

[royalfan5]

LaGrange multipliers!
Perhaps if I had learned what those were it would have worked easier.

[Frozen Sooner]

Heh. Actually, LaGrange multipliers are VERY handy for finding Nash equilibria.

My Intermediate Price Theory professor showed us how to do it-except most of the people in the class had gone through business calc, and LaGrange multipliers aren't covered until Calc IV.

That guy was awesome. Full Ph.D in Econ at age 23.

[royalfan5]

Heh. Actually, LaGrange multipliers are VERY handy for finding Nash equilibria.

My Intermediate Price Theory professor showed us how to do it-except most of the people in the class had gone through business calc, and LaGrange multipliers aren't covered until Calc IV.

That guy was awesome. Full Ph.D in Econ at age 23.
There in lies the problem, I skipped straight into Graduate level ag econ, and have to figure it out on the fly.

[Frozen Sooner]

Yeah, that'd be tough.

[royalfan5]

Yeah, that'd be tough.
Apparently at UNL, prereqs are for undergrads/and or suckers. They give grad students a lot of leeway in scheduling.

[BeetDigger]

Heh. Actually, LaGrange multipliers are VERY handy for finding Nash equilibria.

My Intermediate Price Theory professor showed us how to do it-except most of the people in the class had gone through business calc, and LaGrange multipliers aren't covered until Calc IV.

That guy was awesome. Full Ph.D in Econ at age 23.



Here is the CV of the professor that taught my microecon class in b-school. Made full professor at age 28 and then a chaired professor position at about 31. At some schools that is over the top greatness. At Chicago, that is unheard of.

GSB Faculty (http://gsbportal.chicagogsb.edu/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_321_215_0_43/http%3B/gsbportal.chicagogsb.edu/Facultycourse/Portlet/FacultyDetail.aspx?&min_year=20064&max_year=20073&person_id=406066&lastName=&firstName=&selFields=MICI&src=FacultyList.aspx&search=True)

[RacerX]

round cornbread>Square cornbread in my experience

Damn Straight.

[Frozen Sooner]

Here is the CV of the professor that taught my microecon class in b-school. Made full professor at age 28 and then a chaired professor position at about 31. At some schools that is over the top greatness. At Chicago, that is unheard of.

GSB Faculty (http://gsbportal.chicagogsb.edu/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_321_215_0_43/http%3B/gsbportal.chicagogsb.edu/Facultycourse/Portlet/FacultyDetail.aspx?&min_year=20064&max_year=20073&person_id=406066&lastName=&firstName=&selFields=MICI&src=FacultyList.aspx&search=True)

That's the kind of person I always wanted to grow up to be. Notice whose senatorial staff he was on?

[GottaHavePride]

Wait, how did this thread veer off track from a thread about a girl with "yooge tracts o' land" to a thread about math geekery?

(thus spake the guy that went all the way through calc 4 and diff-eq before deciding math was boring as hell.)

[Frozen Sooner]

Econ geekery, actually. It's just tangentially involved calculus.

[GottaHavePride]

Heh. I have still never taken an econ class. ever.

[Frozen Sooner]

I always thought that LaGrange multipliers should involve really long beards and spinning guitars.

[GottaHavePride]

Now that's something I can agree with.

[royalfan5]

I always thought that LaGrange multipliers should involve really long beards and spinning guitars.
My cousins were born in LaGrange, would that make my Aunt a Lagrange Multiplier?

[Frozen Sooner]

Does she have a long beard and spinning guitar?

Because if so, COOLEST AUNT EVAR!

[royalfan5]

Does she have a long beard and spinning guitar?

Because if so, COOLEST AUNT EVAR!
No, but she can kill snakes with a hoe like none other.

[Ike]

I always thought that LaGrange multipliers should involve really long beards and spinning guitars.
If you had learned about them in a physics class (as I did), they would have. :D

[BeetDigger]

That's the kind of person I always wanted to grow up to be. Notice whose senatorial staff he was on?


Yes, he did not speak about it however. He taught theory through the use of Simpsons espisodes.

Here is another star at the school. I did not take his class. Too many great profs, too little time. Rajan (http://chicagogsb.edu/news/2006-01-13_rajan.aspx)

[Frozen Sooner]

If you had learned about them in a physics class (as I did), they would have. :D

*sigh*

I really should have been either a physicist or an engineer.

[Ike]

*sigh*

I really should have been either a physicist or an engineer.


heh. Speaking of long beards (and spinning guitars if you want)...I got an email from the OU mass mailer a few weeks ago that this month is "no-shave november", and that the SPS (society of physics students) is taking its annual "Jim Hicks Memorial Beard Contest" campus wide. (note, that Jim Hicks is not dead, he's just left OU...He was a grad student with me...but he was known for the zz-topish beard...and for making sure that physics always included guitars and beer)

[Frozen Sooner]

Yep. I definitely should have been a physicist.

I am SO going back to school and adding some degrees later.

[SoonerInKCMO]

Yo, Beet - when did you go to B-School? Did you know an Emily T.? I 'know' her through various innerweb boards.... 'interesting' young lady. ;)