RE: Asimov - Assumptions, the audience and arithmetic - Rant?

[APEERY -at- FAMILYDOLLAR -dot- COM]

Hi, Glenn, sorry to chime in so late.  Observations follow, among much
snippage:


	> -----Original Message-----
	> From: Stegall, Sarah [mailto:sarah -dot- stegall -at- terayon -dot- com]
	 

	> - None of the instructors was a professor, they were invariably
	foreign 
	> graduate students whose command of English was poor at best...

	So what? Their grounding in the mathematic foundations is more solid
as
	a testament to the poor level of our public schools pushing of math
and
	science.

	I agree with you, but I'm not sure I understand your point.  If I
understand Sarah correctly, she is decrying the fact that many teachers of
technical subjects in American universities lecture in virtually
unintelligible English.  I have to agree with this, having suffered through
many such. :)  As a TW tie-in, the profoundest, most accurate information in
the world is useless if no one can understand it


	> I have been told to my face that calculus is taught
	> deliberately in this way "to screen out people who aren't 
	> serious about becoming engineers", 
	> I consider this tantamount to a public
	> fraud. I have no interest in becoming an engineer, and I do 
	> expect to be taught calculus with no hidden agenda. 

	Not to take any wind from your rant, but IME:

	(1) I didn't understand algebra until algebra II and analytic
geometry.
	(2) I didn't understand geometry until trigonometry.
	...
	 <snip>

	Is the fullest understanding of any math course achieved only when
the knowledge is applied?  Yes, this is true in a sense.  However, should a
course called "Calculus" discourage questions about calculus?  I don't see
why.  If I've paid my money for the course, I expect to be taught, without
having to deal with what Sarah called a "hidden agenda."

	My point is that math (and calculus) is a religion that you have to
take
	on faith until you can find somewhere to apply it.

	Math can be intrinsically beautiful and interesting, without
learning any application. (I can hear my father the engineer laughing his
head off at that one...)  But I take your point.  I remember studying
rotation of solids in second semester calculus and thinking, "What the
&*(%^_??!!"

	...To know calculus by itself won't do you much, but when you
	see it applied in other areas, you become in true awe of Sir Newton
for
	having come up with it in the first place.

	I was in awe when the concept of finding the area under a curve was
explained to me.  OT, but cool!



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and 
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.