nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Josef K said:What about "Boudu"?
Nope that and "rhetoric" are out.
I'll give up "D&G" and "science".
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Josef K said:What about "Boudu"?
*demurely raises hand*
I'll swap "rhetoric" for "science"
How many months did this take?/How many hits of acid?
No, I don't believe either of you.
No swaps, no fingers crossed, no take-backs.
Couple of weeks.
No acid, but I did read a bit of it while otherwise intoxicated - dunno if it make any more sense, but I don't think it made any less.
But didn't the operations come first historically? The (rigorous) philosophy of it came later when people realised that it was a handy tool and the explanations as they stood weren't adequate. So in a sense people are learning it in an order that is somewhat justfiable."But they do not get to grips with the basics of calculus; they learn how to perform certain operations, and so the knowledge they acquire is for the most part purely procedural. A major problem with undergraduate maths courses is that the lack of conceptual knowledge doesn't prepare them well for the transition to HE programmes that rely on maths. There is quite a literature on this."
Well, when we started doing differentiation we did derive it in a way that made sense. It's just that at university we did it in a different way as we had a more subtle understanding of various types of limits and things. But my understanding is that that derivation came later so I don't have a problem with seeing them that way round. What I'm saying is that I certainly don't feel as though the methodology of calculus was just plucked out of the blue when I was doing my a-levels - although we had a very good teacher, maybe that wasn't the usual experience."I'm not arguing for Philosophy, just conceptual understanding. It's a question of connecting one procedure to the others, so that you can understand it as a concept -- a mathematical, not philosophical concept -- as well as a procedure. But there are time constraints imposed because everyone needs to know enough procedures to pass the exam."
Well, it's interesting, I did maths and further maths at a-level and in the further maths group there were only about six or eight of us who were all quite bright (if I can say that) and everyone was obviously interested enough to do maths twice; on the other hand the normal maths group was very mixed ability and about thirty people and it was in this that we first studied differentation obviously. I think the justification was most likely presented along the lines of "you may not stricly need to know this for the exam but here it is". It was certainly a far cry from "You don't need to know this so shut the fuck up"."That's cool. Obviously, it varies. I guess at A level it's the prior knowledge of the class versus the constraint of the exam. A really good, homogeneous class can probably do a lot."
I'm not arguing for Philosophy, just conceptual understanding. It's a question of connecting one procedure to the others, so that you can understand it as a concept -- a mathematical, not philosophical concept -- as well as a procedure. But there are time constraints imposed because everyone needs to know enough procedures to pass the exam.
If you'll note, "nomad" is also a pallindrome of "monad"...
I suppose Advanced Dungeons & Dragons tournaments do eat into one's time somewhat.