Lame Saturday Night Activities: How Bad Is It?

[Mr Evilwrench]

Man, I remember (for small quantities of remembering) dif eq in high school. Yeah, I took 5 years of maths, what of it?

 

[churchmouse]

I have changed all my clocks except for one in anticipation of going back to EST.

This just may be the highlight of our evening.

 

[KellyinAvon]

This just may be the highlight of our evening.

I'm eyeing the one clock that I don't change because it's a pain to get down. I need to change the battery... LAME!

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I have changed all my clocks except for one in anticipation of going back to EST.

Same here. We have this one wood-framed clock on our kitchen wall that might be the last gift from our wedding (37 years ago) that we still use. It has one of those AA battery powered movements, and I don't know if it's the hands or the movement, but when the minute hand passes 12, it slips 5-10 minutes ahead, and when it starts going uphill, past 7, it drops back 5-10 minutes. It's been like that for almost a year, now.

 

[KokomoDave]

Watching the marathon of Port Protection Alaska after mama-san made Chef Boyardee deep dish pizza aka Chicago Deep Dish. She is snuggled up on the couch with both K9S protecting her and me sitting on my fat arse in a non-reclining chair pretzel legged with 44 Special and G 43X in IWB holsters checking INGO on commercial breaks.
Lame a$$ed Saturday night...

 

[rhino]

Man, I remember (for small quantities of remembering) dif eq in high school. Yeah, I took 5 years of maths, what of it?

You must have gone to a pretty advanced high school!

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

You must have gone to a pretty advanced high school!

1027 in my class, and we had the budget and budget discipline enough to cover everything. I didn't take organic chemistry but I probably should have; I wound up with my first study hall in 12th grade because I'd just about run out of other things to take. That includes trade school subjects as well as college prep. I graduated with I think it was 52 of the required 34 credits.

 

[churchmouse]

Yup. Ingo. Live PD (exciting show) and set the clocks back.........

Oh....and struggling with the new Windows 10 laptop.......

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Yup. Ingo. Live PD (exciting show) and set the clocks back.........

Oh....and struggling with the new Windows 10 laptop.......

Hey CM, have you tried downloading that "classic Windows shell" thing? I'm sure one of the more computer savvy folks on here can explain it better than me, but it makes Windows 10 "feel" more like Windows 7. There are still differences, but at least it looks a little more like what I was used to rather than looking like a smart phone.

 

[churchmouse]

Hey CM, have you tried downloading that "classic Windows shell" thing? I'm sure one of the more computer savvy folks on here can explain it better than me, but it makes Windows 10 "feel" more like Windows 7. There are still differences, but at least it looks a little more like what I was used to rather than looking like a smart phone.

I am getting more used to it but I can not get the pics/documents from the old W-7 machine loaded into the new one. I am cautious what I do so as not to shut down the power grid.....

I have a buddy that is IT. I will buy his lunch and spend the time with him.

 

[rhino]

1027 in my class, and we had the budget and budget discipline enough to cover everything. I didn't take organic chemistry but I probably should have; I wound up with my first study hall in 12th grade because I'd just about run out of other things to take. That includes trade school subjects as well as college prep. I graduated with I think it was 52 of the required 34 credits.

I've never heard of a high school going beyond calculus! What was the name of your school and town? I want to know more about it!

My high school's math stopped at calculus, but it was a more rigorous class than most high schools (at least back then). Most high schools taught the version that is taught to business and other non-STEM students, but what I got was very much like the first two classes for engineering, physics, and math majors. I didn't know that at the time, but it was apparent when I got to college.

I exhausted the math and physical science offerings at my school too.

Grade 10: Algebra 3-4, Geometry 1-2, Chemistry 1-2, Physics 1-2.

Grade 11: Trigonometry and Analytic Geometry 1-2, Chemistry 3-4 (one semester of analytical chem and one of organic chem); and physics 3-4.

I was the only second year physics student and the only kid who actually tried to have a second year of physics in the memory of anyone at the school. They had it in the course listings, though, so I registered for it. The teacher wasn't sure what to do with me, so I attended class in the same room as the Physics 1-2 students and he'd take time to check on me as I worked through a Schaum's Outline of College Physics.

Grade 12: Calculus 1-2, "Computer Math" (two semesters of programming in BASIC on Apple IIc), and no science left other than biology, which did not interest me at the time.

It would have been cool to have more advanced math available. It would have necessitated moving the first algebra class to 7th or 8th grade, which they didn't do back then. Getting a head start on differential equations could have been a game changer because it's necessary for so many real world problems.

We also did not have AP classes available (I graduated in 1983). I'm sure they existed, but they were uncommon back then.

When I got to college, we were offered the option of taking a math placement exam in order to test out of Calc 1 or 1/2 (or we could have completed Calc 1,2,3 during an intensive summer course prior to the school year) and were required to complete a chemistry placement exam. I decided it was in my best interest complete the calculus courses to 1) ensure that I could do it well, and 2) have a better chance of establishing some good marks for my GPA. I think that was a good choice.

The chem exam offered two options. If you scored high enough, you could opt to complete an accelerated version of Chem 1/2 in one quarter. Otherwise, they would place you in a section based on ability. I opted out of the accelerated course, but I scored well (excellent chemistry teacher and curriculum in high school) and got placed with all chemistry and chemical engineering majors (I was the only mechanical engineering major in the section).

My big college mistakes started my sophomore year (you know what sophomore year is like for engineering and physics majors). I exerted some effort in the first differential equations course, but I didn't comprehend how critically important that piece of the foundation would be later. I could have focused more on comprehension and mastery of the material, but it didn't click with me that I should do anything other than try to get a good grade. I fell short in that department (B+), but I was overwhelmed by the workload too. Then I got to differential equations 2 and the professor announced that he as not going to collect or grade the assigned homework for grade. My stupid 19 year old brain interpreted that as "I don't have to do the homework! " Stupid, stupid, stupid. I didn't do any homework and I earned my first ever "C" grade. Worse, I didn't understand or retain what I needed to understand and retain. I didn't really "get" Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors until I took some engineering math/analysis courses in grad school. That's also when I started to realize that I had cheated myself due to ignorance (and not listening to wise people who told me multiple times that grades will happen if you understand the material).

As I am repeating the math course, some things seem a lot more obvious to me now, but some remain elusive and require some brute force working a lot of problems and learning from mistakes until I see the light.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

It was North Central in Washington Township Indianapolis in 1982. A lot of the details have gotten fuzzy, but we had Algebra 5-6 before Calculus, and as I recall it was titled "Transcendental Functions and Differential Equations." It wasn't broken out by semesters, so the transcendentals didn't take up half the time, and there was probably a lot farther we could have gone with dif eq. I have no idea what they might offer now. We also didn't have a formally defined "AP" category. We had what was called X, for accelerated. It wouldn't necessarily get you placement at university, but you'd get good enough to sit an examination. I took Chemistry X, US History X, etc.

 

[rhino]

It was North Central in Washington Township Indianapolis in 1982. A lot of the details have gotten fuzzy, but we had Algebra 5-6 before Calculus, and as I recall it was titled "Transcendental Functions and Differential Equations." It wasn't broken out by semesters, so the transcendentals didn't take up half the time, and there was probably a lot farther we could have gone with dif eq. I have no idea what they might offer now. We also didn't have a formally defined "AP" category. We had what was called X, for accelerated. It wouldn't necessarily get you placement at university, but you'd get good enough to sit an examination. I took Chemistry X, US History X, etc.

Interesting! We're about the same age. I am familiar with North Central (two of my nephews attended for a while before moving).

Here is a link to their current course catalog: http://www.nchs.cc/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Combined-CC-2019-2020-for-NCHS-website.pdf

Looks like the available calculus courses are both AP classes now. After that, they have a course called ADVANCED MATHEMATICS TOPICS:

ADVANCED MATHEMATICS TOPICS
1/2One credit each semester
This course is for students who have completed AP Calculus BC prior to their senior year. Course includes a review of techniques for differentiation and integration with an emphasis on the conceptual understanding. Partial derivatives, vector fields, divergence, gradient, and curl are introduced. Specialized integration techniques including surface integrals, line integrals, and integration with parametrics are in-troduced. Ordinary Differential Equations beyond separable equations are taught along with advanced techniques in Linear Algebra.

This is essentially a multi-variate calculus and ordinary differential equations course. I am both surprised and impressed to see this subject matter taught in a high school. It would be interesting to know how many students take the course each year.

My high school calculus course was similar to the more advanced of the two AP courses. It would have been a good experience for me to start algebra in the 8th grade (which is common now) so I'd have another year available for the course after calculus. Alas, those opportunities did not exist for us!

So how did your advanced math status serve you in college? Did you test out of any?

 

[femurphy77]

A little early yet but lame nonetheless: Painting the garage interior walls

 

[KokomoDave]

I am putting in extra weather stripping on the entry doors.
My vault is good to go so never have to monkey with that.

 

[rhino]

I fell behind in my coursework due to some other obligations this week. I'll be grinding the pencil on the paper until late tonight, then resuming tomorrow. We had three sections to cover this week (normally two), and the problems for the first to sections were fewer in number, but much more time consuming to complete. Both were applications of systems of differential equations to coupled spring-mass systems and then non-steady state electric circuits (voltage source, resistor, inductor, and capacitor).

 

[femurphy77]

I fell behind in my coursework due to some other obligations this week. I'll be grinding the pencil on the paper until late tonight, then resuming tomorrow. We had three sections to cover this week (normally two), and the problems for the first to sections were fewer in number, but much more time consuming to complete. Both were applications of systems of differential equations to coupled spring-mass systems and then non-steady state electric circuits (voltage source, resistor, inductor, and capacitor).

Ok we all know how lame you are, give the rest of us a chance!

 

[rhino]

Ok we all know how lame you are, give the rest of us a chance!

I will. My eyes were burning while I was trying to summarize a section from the textbook the same way you feel when you needed to sleep a few hours ago. UGH.