O-kay. I just logged on to my online class page and although my test has not yet been graded, there is a new "Announcement" with "common pitfalls" from lessons 1 - 4. This was posted the day following the day I took my exam. I cannot understand what purpose this can possibly serve me at this point. Are these "hints" supposed to be of use to me personally or does the instructor have some pre-conceived idea of how far along the student is supposed to be at a given time and hence posts this stuff according to a set schedule? I'm already through lesson 9 now and if my work life hadn't recently gotten totally insane, I would be a couple lessons past that.
I guess I can say, oh crap, too bad he didn't explain this before I took the midterm, although I'm not sure it would have helped me with the trigonometric function that was on the exam:
"If this limit were 6, then for any positive E, there would be a positive D such that for every x > D, 3x - 6 <> D and 3x - 6 >= E.x will usually depend on D. That is, you will get an expression for x in terms of D.Start with E = 1 and if that doesn't work, adjust it later. You have to show that for any positive D, there is an x where x > D and 3x-6 >= 1. Since 3x-6 >= 1 when x >= 7/3 (or x <= -5/3 but we don't need to use that information), all you need to do now is show that for any D > 0, there is an x such that x > D and x >= 7/3."
Please take a moment to realize and enjoy the fact that you will never be in the position to have to understand the above material. I mean, unless you are contemplating an advanced degree in mathematics (or are unlucky enough to have not taken your calc 1 midterm yet). In which case, feel free to find whatever pleasure you can in your superior understanding of the precise definition of a limit because, really, how often do you get to do that? I personally am going to dedicate that part of my brain for thinking important, happy-making thoughts like "Bunnies are soft and cute" and "Fiber One bars may be just peanut butter chip or chocolate chip cookies with oats, but how many cookies have 9 grams of fiber in 150 scrumptious calories?"
Oh, and have I mentioned that with some consideration, I realized that there is no real reason I need to take differential equations? More room for fun stuff.
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2 comments:
Aw, another thing we'll have in common: not taking DiffEQ! For a while, at least (in my case).
If you sign up for a graduate class in attitude assessment (or I take software engineering), that will be really frightening.
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