/sci/ - Science & Math

>be in top 10 college
>have young and incredibly intelligent professor
>in one of his cs theory classes
>learning about computational and complexity theory
>if anyone is actually capable of solving P=NP, this guy is one of them
>seriously this guy is really smart and has an amazing reputation already at a young age
>on his final test or hw assignments he usually has an extra credit question: prove or disprove P=NP
>i bet he is just gonna crowd source the answer to that question or something

>>7097680
P=PN
P-PN=0
P(1-N)=0
statement is correct if P=0 or N=1
BTFO

>>7097612
That kid is a fucking asshole and a moron. Laughing at people because of their real name, where the fuck do you think you are, elementary school?

>>7097612
Could've just said. "It's my brother's name".

>>7097612
>projecting something via his computer and has a folder open
>personal file in folder
what kind of retard ... ?

>In class with bro-tier prof
>Another professor comes in
>He explains some aspect of what we're learning
>After he's done, he and my prof have a short conversation
>As he's leaving he says something like, "I suppose that's why you've had so much more success than me."
>The door shuts and we're all sitting there in silence
>Our professor then says, "Maybe that's because I actually worked at it instead of sitting on my ass for the last twenty years."
>Everyone burst out laughing


>In community college
>School changes the prof assigned to the class at the last minute
>it's a technical writing class
>Dude goes on crazy liberal rants everyday
>Definitely picks favorites and rewards them, for some reason I was one of his favorites
>Get 98% on a test, one question marked wrong.
>Objectively prove that I got the question right.
>He tells me, "Don't push it" while smiling at me
>I shut up the rest of the semester and get great grades

>>7097771

Except he has no brother, since hes dead

>>7097854
>community college
>writing class
>/sci/

>studying maths in mid-tier uni
>by now I'm used to weird lecturers
>this guy takes it to a whole new level
>staring at the floor constantly, only looks up to write on chalkboard
>he's never looked at a student
>has lecture notes for the whole semester written on a single piece of paper
>writing is so tiny, it can't possibly be legible
>mumbles through lectures and when he's not talking you can see him whispering under his breath
>pretty intrigued by this guy, decide to look up his CV
>used to be head of the graduate studies in maths at Princeton
>now works in a shitty university
>has a tonne of publications, including a textbook, up until ~2000, when he left Princeton

Really want to know what happened to this guy. He must have had a mental breakdown or done some fucked up shit.

>>7098018
You've got us intrigued now as well

>>7098025
Seconded

>>7097612
This is a high school teacher at my brother's school:
>former CS prof
>left for some reason
>brother caught him doing parkour stunts on the stairs when the guy thought no one was looking

>>7098025
I can't really think of anything else notable about the guy. Speaking of unusual lecturers there is one other example that comes to mind.

I reckon he's the only lecturer in the maths department with a wikipedia page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Simms

I suppose there's nothing that strange about him other than he's really old and senile, and he also survived the sinking of SS City of Cairo (the British passenger ship torpedoed by a German U-boat in WW2).

>>7098018

Either an innocent that got caught in collateral in department politicing.

At my university there is an ex-professor that hangs out a lot of the time in the study rooms and the like, and is most of the colloquiums and the like the department holds. Usually helps people with homework questions and the like. I thought his way of helping was just being eccentric or trying to not give away the answer and the like. He also tended to want things repeated to him many times in a row if you wanted help. Didn't write anything on the boards that were in the room ever. Didn't think much of it. Only after I got involved with research with another professor did I find out what had happened.

He had been a researcher at the university for years and had been an assistant professor in both the math and physics department. Not the most genius man, but accomplished and reliable. A theorist.

A few years ago he apparently suffered a major stroke that nearly killed him. As a result his right hand is nearly completely unusable and he is incapable of performing computations of almost any sort. He has difficulty remembering numbers too. He writes room numbers as basically pictionary in a book he carries with him at all times. He can't make change. Telephone numbers are too much.

Both departments have basically tried to get him work where they can, but it really is difficult for physicist/mathematician that can't do things like basic algebra. I can't say I have ever seen him depressed now that I look at him. But I honestly cannot imagine that world.

>>7097925

>Science man thinks saving money and being able to write is something to be ashamed of
>Thinks technical writing isn't applicable to STEM
>Faults in logic would ironically wouldn't have followed him into adulthood if he only got a liberal arts degree

>>7098125
>and the like
>and the like
>and the like

I had three professors who were ex-military. One was a peacekeeper in Croatia/Bosnia during the early 1990s and got tired of digging up mass graves, so he went back to school and earned his PhD. Another guy was in an artillery unit, and during long nights of shelling Serbians or Albanians or something like that developed a love for higher math. The third was a captain in the Canadian navy before he retired to work on his passion: quantum physics. When the department cut some staff, he took a buyout package and went back to the navy. One of the grad students had to delay his defense because the guy was still on his committee, but was on a boat on the other side of the world, and his mission kept getting extended. They eventually solved the problem with a satellite connection.

>in vector calc seminar (required for many math lecture classes at my uni)
>2nd week of quarter
>talking about quadric surfaces
>parabaloids
>TA is a young guy, twenties. grad student.
>real cool guy, loves maths
>"alright guys, what about this one"
>writes f = x^2 - y^2 on board
>"how's this looks?"
>class is quiet
>one kid mutters "pringle..."
>TA looks right at him and says calmly
>"Hey, once you pop the top the fun don't stop."
>that class is entirely quiet
>all of my what

i always call hyperbolic parabaloid a pringle now. based TA.

>>7098864
i didn't notice that in anons post until you pointed it out. i think you might care a bit too much.

>In ODEs
>Prof is starting a new section on complex functions
>Lecture starts out with some middle-school algebra tricks.
>Girl asks "What are we doing right now?"
>Professor turns around from the chalkboard
>"Right now, I'm trying to earn a paycheck at the end of every month, and you're trying to get an A in this class."

Another one:

>Talking to a guy before topology
>Observing how there are a ton of freshman/sophomores in the class.
>Find out that we both took calc I in college
>Talking about how we feel like the only ones in that situation
>Prof says, "I took calc I in college, I was a fine arts major for a year"
>Classmate was a jazz major for a year
>I was a music composition major for a year
>We all quit for pretty much the same reasons.

>in honors calc 3
>old math prof with crazy white beard and balding head
>often strokes beard while muttering to himself but in a likeable kind of way
>one day doing some shit, i don't remember what
>we get down to a final integral that looks complex
>"i don't have enough time left on earth to solve this integral"
>everyone laughs but me
>old, cool prof joking about dying soon
>mrw

another of same guy
>prof easily goes on tangents
>being old he's done a lot in life
>somehow begins talking about an old friend of his
>we start asking questions sensing an easy divergence (no pun intended)
>he's talking about this guy and we ask when they last spoke
>"well truthfully I haven't seen or spoken to him in probably twenty years"
>we ask why
>"i don't think there was any particular reason, it just seems to happen that way sometimes. you'll find as you grow older that people go their own ways and sometimes those ways do not coincide but the nonetheless remain an important part of your life with or without actually being there for it"
>we all sit staring at his sudden philosophy
>my friend goes "man... this is more than just a math class"

>sperg professor showing us how to do matricies in matlab
>a\b operation
>stresses HARD not to use /
>messes up and uses / on a line
>"hmmm... well we seem to have an error here"
>thinks its cause one row's output was in column form.
>rest of class got fine results using the \ key
>"no it's just that you have the wrong slash" says kid
>"Well that's just part of it" refuses to admit he messed this up
>i can't stop fucking cracking up in the back

Engineering professor of course.

>>7100017
>prof easily goes on tangents
>we start asking questions sensing an easy divergence

kek

>math major at a state university
>topology professor notorious for his truculence and uncompromising rigor
>mad scientist bozo the clown style hair, standard gray old man beard

He covered more in a class than I had ever done in a week, I failed every single quiz, got 50% on both midterms, and he still gave me a B. Really got me into math, felt like the class built a lot of character.

Still feel bad when I think about that B I didn't even earn while this year's professors have the kid gloves on.

>>7100017
lol

>>7098864
was that your only takeaway from that story?

Had a math professor that absolutely refused to use the door. He used a window (first floor) to get in and out.

>>7100072
>your only takeaway
wat

>>7100085
lel wut

Our probability lecturer makes a bad joke almost every lecture, the whole class pays attention in an attempt to look out for it.
Can't remember most of them though.

>first class
>"since this is probability we'll do a gambling example, since all successful statisticians make big money gambling"
>silence
>"but that was a joke"
>mfw that was the joke

>another class
>"'it's pretty cold outside, so let's start with a warmup"

>>7100012
>We all quit for pretty much the same reasons.
Got tired of getting laid too much?

>>7099968

Bio prof
>apparently giving sex tips
>something about how sperm motility is different for sperm with XX or XY chromosomes
>pull penis slightly out when coming to get better chances of conceiving a girl; reverse for a boy
>adds, "Although when you finally do get around to doing it, please don't think of me."
>Jesus Fucking Christ

>>7100228

have fun remembering your professor with every girl you fuck.

For reference:

>Doing maths honours last year
>supervisor goes on sabbatical leave
>we still communicate through email to finish the project
>while he's gone, his phd gril hits on me on the daily.
>at the end of the year, she asks me out to lunch
>says to me, "if it's weird, I can pretend that I'm your supervisor ;)".

>>7100209
Did you just call >>7100012 hot?

>>7098864
Yeah, liked the post, but that was just off putting. This isn't writing class though, who really proof reads their posts on sci?

>>7100186
>did geostatistics last semester
>lecturer got banned from a popular betting app for winning too much

>>7100264
no the joke was that engineers never get laid and music majors have tons of sex

which is like 50% true

>>7100091
ok "your only takeaway" is definitely a normal phrase. now i know you're fucking with people.

the other stroke story reminded me of this

>sitting in vector calculus
>it is an 8am
>monday; everyone groggy, cranky, or hung over
>prof does his normal writing on the board, pretty messy
>girl is fucking fed up with it
>she shouts while he writes a theorem
>"OH MY GOD WHY IS YOUR HAND WRITING SO SHITTY JUST USE YOUR DOMINANT HAND ALREADY"
>"Well actually I had a stroke a few years back and lost fine motor control of that hand. i'm lucky i still have my mathematical ability and my left hand."
>girl is suddenly flushed
>no one complains about the hand writing again, not even outside of class

>>7097883
Then "It WAS my brother name".

>>7100842
>being this persistent over a story
dude you werent even there just let it go.

>>7100812
Why just 50% true ?

>>7100848
No i want to be right blblblblbl

>>7100865
IN MY EXPERIENCE: (warning, anecdotal, not scientific, evidence.)
i have a very close friend from high school, he is a composition major at UCLA. he gets drunk or high at least 5 times a week, has constant sex, and his grades dont matter as long as he writes music. (very talented. i honestly think he's going to do great things unless he flakes out.) however my other friend from high school (also at UCLA for Composition. my high school had a really good music program. award winning, etc.) is a complete virgin robot-tier idiot when it comes to women. that said, a lot of my musician friends have a lot of sex. i would say it is a correlation, not a rule.

however my engineer friends just have no time to get laid. most of us spend our weekends at this small library on campus, or in the common room. yes sometimes we fuck people, but nearly with the frequency of musicians.

so basically it isn't true that STEM majors done get laid and that music majors do.

it is true that music majors tend to get laid more. (in my experience.)

>>7100825
fuck

>>7100254
did you give her the D?

>>7099968
I really like this post

>>7100012

I'm taking calc 1 as a sophomore. Am I hopeless?

>>7098125
That's really, really sad...

>>7101030

His thesis defense was significantly more hands-below-the pants than expected

>>7101492
Are you majoring in math? If so probably, you'll likely need an extra year.

>>7101492
you are almost two years behind the standard start for engineering majors. (in my area starting in calc 3 is common, with starting in calc 2 being most common) so just know that you will almost definitely take 4 or 5 more years to finish your degree