4 ms·
The famous story of young C. F. Gauss adding 1 + 2 + . . . + 100 by noting the familiar formula. Brought it up to his teacher. Lucky for him the teacher recog
by JJMcJ 3y ago
The famous story of young C. F. Gauss adding 1 + 2 + . . . + 100 by noting the familiar formula.
Brought it up to his teacher.
Lucky for him the teacher recognized this was no ordinary pupil and contacted the Duke of Brunswick, who paid for his university education later.
Today, he'd be lucky not to end up handcuffed in a squad car.
That's another reason to pay 50K for a private school for your kids if you can afford it.
Also, for getting into upper division classes, I wish I'd had the sense to do it, looking back.
- IIsi50MHz 3y agoWhereas I, not understanding the high school textbook or teacher explanations on some problem, but having reversed a procedure from the problems which had answers in the back of the book, was told one day: - It probably doesn't work for all problems in the set (but was given two chances to prove it from the unassigned problems and some the teacher made up on the spot). - Okay, but you can only use it on homework and still have to write every step; can't use it on quizes, tests, or extra credit because it takes up too much space and takes too long to grade. - If I could find a math symbol for the key operation within one day, I could use it ONE take-home extra credit that had been due that day. The key operation? For all positive N, f(N) = N+N-1...until N=zero. I couldn't find the requested symbo l. When I took my first uni maths class, I asked my prof. He answered and wrote it before I even finished describing: "Oh, sigma."