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by Fritz Reitz, Ph.D., a.k.a. Mrs. Mock’s little brother e-mail: freitz@u.washington

Math that Doesn't Suck More examples of math used to double your salary, be a danger to yourself and others, understand the fabric of spacetime, and make art that people besides your mom might actually want. by Fritz Reitz, Ph.D., a.k.a. Mrs. Mock’s little brother

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by Fritz Reitz, Ph.D., a.k.a. Mrs. Mock’s little brother e-mail: freitz@u.washington

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  1. Math that Doesn't SuckMore examples of math used to double your salary, be a danger to yourself and others, understand the fabric of spacetime, and make art that people besides your mom might actually want. by Fritz Reitz, Ph.D., a.k.a. Mrs. Mock’s little brother e-mail: freitz@u.washington.edu personal website: http://fritopia.info

  2. different year, same appeal –Math doesn’t bore people. Fritz bores people. • this is cool  • understanding it well enough to reproduce it requires passion and time • in lieu of that, how about we just penalize you for failure? • don’t say “math sucks”, say “Fritz’s generation sucks, and mine will do way better”

  3. math used to double your salary would you rather: • (a) build shelving for Fritz’s basement workshop for $20/hour (addition & subtraction) or • (b) build a mock-up of a million-dollar machine for $40/hour? (geometry & trig) if everybody can do what you do, competition makes you inexpensive.

  4. be a danger to yourself and others • there is a reason this shirt comes only in mens’ sizes • if you are male or heterosexual, you are at risk • if you absolutely must be male or stand near one, your life may well depend on being mathematically competent

  5. “I want to know God’s thoughts... the rest are details.” – Albert Einstein • numbers & addition form a “group” • so do rotations of a bike wheel in a plane (SO(2)), or a basketball in space (SO(3)) • rotations “add”, but the topology is different • the physical forces each have their own “group”, and if you can figure out how they all fit together, you can have a Nobel prize

  6. The puzzle pieces: • electromagnetism: phase, U(1), ~ SO(2) • weak force: quark identity, SU(2) • strong force: “color”, SU(3) • gravity: spacetime, O(3,1) • much as SO(3) contains SO(2), it is thought something bigger contains all of the above (like E8 shown at right)

  7. make art that people besides your mom might actually want.

  8. big finale: HOW TO KNOW EVERYTHING*wherein the audience asks Fritz any quantitative question and he answers it and they are all astounded and stuffe.g. “how many hairs are on my head?”, “how many bricks are in AMHS”, “how many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man?”, etc.*(aka “order of magnitude calculations”)

  9. contact info: • e-mail: freitz@u.washington.edu • personal website: http://fritopia.info

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