Many years ago, I had the privilege of having Prof Peter Saunders as my MSc adviser while at King's College London. Peter Saunders was (apart from being a great

Many years ago, I had the privilege of having Prof Peter Saunders as my MSc adviser while at King's College London. Peter Saunders was (apart from being a great educationalist), the person who did the maths behind James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis. He was far and away the best maths teacher I ever had. Anyway, he also taught a dynamical systems (chaos theory) class to a mixture of MSc students and final year undergrads. On this occasion, he was explaining some principle, and was busy talking while writing on the board. He turns round, and there is a sea of blank looking faces in front of him. No one has understood. "Well it's obvious" he says, and turns back to the board. 2 minutes later, he turns back. Now there is a sea of bored looking faces in front of him. Why? Well it's obvious... Everyone understood completely. Genius at work