Category: General

Two weeks into the summer term and all is going well. I almost aced my first physics test. I got one multiple choice question wrong because I misread the question. It said Y and I thought it said X. Oh well. Likewise, Biology is going fine. Just memorize a bunch of stuff and you can get through it fine.

The class that has given me the most fits is linear algebra. The class is 10 hours of lecture per week: 2 hours per day, 5 days per week. We had a mid term test today covering the first 2 weeks, and we pretty much have one every week now for the rest of the course.

I don’t have to take the class because I took it already at Macalester, but I figured I should take it because I forgot pretty much everything I originally learned. Because I’m just taking the class to learn and I already have credit for it, I’m taking it pass/fail. Its the second class I’ve ever taken like this. I’m getting out of the class what I intended to. I do have a much better understanding differential equations.

For those who don’t know what a differential equation is, its an equation that uses other equations as variables. For example, if you have a function y(x) and the derivative of the function y'(x), then a differential equation might be y` = y. (and for those of you who really care, the answer would be y=e^x, because its the only non-zero function whose derivative equals itself) The class is pretty practical as math classes go. Most of the uses of differential equations come from the sciences (heating, cooling, motion, population growth, etc)

Jed took this class last semester and said it was easy. I don’t know if its the 10 hour per week aspect to it or the professor, but its a lot harder than the other classes I’m taking. Solving differential equations is just a matter following an algorithm. Identify the type it is and then apply the technique. There are no proofs involved, just methods to solve problems.

As to the title of this post, I feel dirty because I’m doing only what I have to, to pass. I usually try to learn the subject rather than worry about the grade. If you do the former, the later will come along naturally. However, given how they cram everything into six weeks in the summer, I have to make trade offs. The choice I have to make is pretty easy: focus on the foundation classes that matter and will count for a grade. I don’t see myself taking many more classes pass/fail, but for this class, this term, its probably the best decision.

I’ll cleanse myself of this feeling in the fall when I take number theory/cryptography.

Props goes out to Mike Bietz and his debaters at Edina, John McNeil and Jed Glickstein, who won the National Tournament of Champsions and the NFL National Tournament this year in LD. Its the first time any school has won both tournaments in the same year in LD.

I’ve been around the activity for a long time now, and being part of a national championship is something that not everyone gets to do, either as a coach or as participant. When I went to Mac, they had just come off of winning two straight CEDA National Tournaments. I came close to being in finals my Junior year, but didn’t quite do it.

Its one of those things that if you can do it even once in your life, its something you can always look back on with pride, and if you never do it, its something which will probably always nag at you for the rest of your life.

Eastview also won both Foreign and Domestic Extemp at NFL Nationals, which is really impressive. Its nice to have a yardstick of local talent you can use to measure yourself by. If we can compete locally, we should have no problem on the national level.

Its 4:30pm, I’m sitting in the medical tower at the University of Minnesota. The biology class has a lecture hall in here. Its by FAR the largest class I’ve ever had, student-wise. There aren’t many biology classes on the Minneapolis campus, so if I want to take more in the future, it will be a pain in the ass.

My differential equations class is one of the more intense classes I’ve taken. 2 hours of lecture 5 days a week, and the lectures are boom-boom-boom. We have a midterm every week but 2 of this term, which gives you an idea of how much they cram into a month and a half. I’m sticking with the pass/fail option. There is no sense breaking my ass on a class I’m just taking for review and don’t even need to take.

I’m really tired. On tuesdays, my first class is at 9:00am and my last one gets out at 8:30pm. The books are killing my back. I’m officially giving up on carrying all of my textbooks except differential equations.

My biology class is also 80% female. The instructor is female. The imbalance between men and women in the natural vs life sciences is amazing. The one exception seems to be astronomy, where I’ve noticed more women than in straight physics or math.

There are a lot of fat people that work in the medical school. Go figure.

I also hate labs. I learn nothing. Unless they are lying to us in lecture and we are supposed to catch it in lab, its useless. They should have a non-lab version of some classes for those who don’t need the lab requirment.

I need to find a place on campus that is not the union to kill time between 12:05 and 5:00. My ass hurts. I got a parking pass now so I’ll probably leave campus for a bit and get a haircut or something.

Expect a lot more updates over the next few months. From now until Aug 8, I have a five hour chunk of each day between classes where I have to sit on my ass.

I wish I had a locker on campus. I have a ton of heavy textbooks to lug around and it would be nice if I could dump them somewhere.

I’m taking a differential equations class pass/fail. I already have credit for the class I took at Macalester, but that was a long time ago and I want to take the class again. Here is the dilema: should I continue to take the class/pass fail, or take it A-F? If I get an A it will pad my GPA. If I get anything less than an A (including an A-), my GPA will drop. I took the class before, but honestly, it was one of my worst classes at Mac. I think I have a few weeks to commit to a grading scheme.

Their grading scheme seems a bit like a crap shoot. If you are going to offer a pass/fail option, I don’t know why it matters when you declare it. You should even be able to declare it post facto. Given you can’t take any classes in your major with the pass/fail option, and a limited number of credits total, it shouldn’t matter too much how they let you apply it.

Either eliminate the option, or don’t be stingy with its application.

My biology class will be interesting. Physics is pretty simple becuase its all just a small number of equations (so far) and simple vector addition. Biology has no real math or problem solving. Its memorization and concepts.

I’ve been informed by several people that the Riemann Hypothesis proof isn’t all its cracked up to be.

I know more about math than most people, but to be honest, I had to go way out of my way to even understand what the Reimann Hypothesis is. My understanding of it is such that I mostly get what it is and what its trying to prove, but I don’t know if I could explain it to other people in a way that could do it justice. Mind you, this isn’t solving it, its just understanding what the question is.

There are other great unsolved math problems that are pretty easy to understand. A good one is the Goldbach Conjecture: Every even number is the sum of exactly two primes. Simple to understand, simple to verify to any given even number you pick, so far impossible to prove for all evens. If you can find an even number that isn’t the sum of two primes, you’ll be famous.