My mathematical magnum opus came back in my college days when I wrote a midterm exam on process control theory. I discovered with advanced math that the best way to learn it and understand it - was to be able to teach it. I had the new breed of programmable calculators that made the old HPs look like crap. It used easy to understand BASIC so I was away to the races. The rule with computers is Garbage In = Garbage Out, so you had to know exactly what you were doing to successfully program it. It meant more time and effort but I enjoyed the work. I wrote a 90 minute midterm in just over 10 minutes. The calculator had the answer in seconds - I spent the ten minutes showing the work that the calculator had done.
Good grief. It’s 37 years old. I wonder if it still works?
My fame spread for that accomplishment and guys went out and bought the optional patch cord required to pirate my program. It did little good for them because you had to know which parameters it was asking for and how to derive them in order to use it. In practical terms, all my program did was eliminate a lot of manual key punching.
The staff got wise to me the following semester and threw a curveball trick question on the midterm that I am certain was aimed at me personally. I solved the first two questions (or rather, my calculator did) - in the standard 10~15 minutes. The third question bunged me right up. For the next hour I racked my brains trying to figure it out. When I saw the trick of it and what they had done, I just cursed right out loud.
“Oh, you dirty sonsabitches!”
I didn’t even realize I’d spoken out loud. “Quiet, Filthie! Get back to work!” But my instructor had the biggest shit eating grin on his face. “10 minutes remaining!” He called. I started scribing like a mad man.
In the end I got a 98% on that exam and I was one of the 3 students in the graduating class that solved it. I lost two points because I skipped a step in the transcription process.
Today some liberal progtard could tell me that 2 + 2 = 7 … and I’d have my hands full trying to debunk it. But once upon a time…long ago… I was fluent in the art of arcane mathematics too. And what they say is true: if ya don’t use it…you eventually lose it.
I’m pretty old school, I use an actual HP-15C at work, apps on my phone and computers, and an HP-32SII at home. About the only programming I did was write an azimuth & radius to X,Y survey program. It’s What I needed when working in a round nucular (thank you Hymie Rickover for the spelling) building with all drawings in XYZ dims. And no, I wasn’t a QC prick.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever work at Davis-Besse?
DeleteI took three semesters of Calculus and then Differential Equations back 30 years ago when I thought that I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. After a couple weeks of Physics, I suddenly realized that I was really meant to be a computer programmer. Now, I couldn't even tell you what the symbols in Calculus mean.
ReplyDeleteMath was always difficult for me. I never memorized my times tables. To this day I do recursive addition in my head. Yet algebra was intuitively obvious, and came naturally to me. My physics class had two acoustically coupled teletypes linkable to a college mainframe, and I taught myself programming. That was the class where I discovered the difference between education and credit, when I was forced to choose. Been on that path ever since.
ReplyDeleteI was a ok student in algebra, but no real problems. Then came finite mathematics, in my computer science classes. The very first test, White literally half the class flunked. Now remember these are self-selected math nerds and computer dorks. I somehow managed a c in that course.
ReplyDeleteI suck at math. I can't do any calculations in my head, and the only time I excelled at math was when the bastard the school had teaching the class started teaching interest and loans. I snapped it up and wanted to learn about compound interest, which he refused to teach stating that it was beyond us. I learned it later, on my own.
ReplyDeleteThe second time was when the faggot teaching the class went into probability. Given a pair of dice... Anyway, I gave the class a lecture on probability and passed around six pair of dice, different sizes and colors. I assured the class that one pair was loaded; let's see who can pick them out. Actually, all were loaded and were percentage dice, but no one discovered that. Then I pointed out that the chance of rolling boxcars was 36 to 1, but Vegas paid 30 to 1. Why bet? I knew better than to try poker; no one would get it. Still, at the end I broke my promise not to get into cards, mainly because the faggot goaded me. Here's what you have to watch for: You're playing Texas Hold'em, there's $500 in the pot, $50 of it is yours. Your chance of improving your hand is 13 to 1, it's $50 to you. Stay or fold, and why?
5 years QC at Beaver Valley until the morning they went commercial, NDE Outages at Farley, Zion, Turkey Point, North Anna, and a summer down at Comanche Peak doing pre-service NDE
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