3 ms·

Agreed. Science is hard, especially without funding...but amateurs do contribute to science. This is most noted in astronomy.

• DanielBMarkham 8y ago
  When I was 17, I took independent math study at my high school. (I had ran out of math classes to take by doubling up on them) The math department lead mentored me. One day I asked "Why is 1/0 undefined? You guys said you couldn't take the square root of a negative number, but when push came to shove, you just invented new stuff. Why not do that with 1/0?" He did not laugh at me or mock me. He looked earnestly at me and said "Why don't you try doing that. See what happens." I spent the next week or two trying to set up another number system. When I ran into trouble, I did a bunch of research at the library. When I came back the following week or two? I was able to give him a mini lecture on why it didn't work. Curiosity, humility, ignorance, and passion is the beating heart of science. The more we make it into some modern priesthood, pro football team, or rock band, the more the general public doesn't want anything to do with it.
  • flubert 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere
    • DanielBMarkham 8y ago
      Yep. That's where I ended up. What a great way to get an introduction to a really neat concept.
  • stordoff 8y ago
    That's roughly similar to how one of my maths teachers introduced the idea that 0.999... = 1. Introduced x = 0.333..., 10x = 3.333..., 10x-x = 9x = 3, x = 1/3, and then waited. Eventually one of us made the connection what happens if you set x = 0.999... (or equivalently if you times x by 3 - you get x = 0.999... and x = 1).