Learning experiences
Nothing like making a fool of yourself.
I just got done hashing it out with my calculus prof. Here's the problem.
"Suppose that p(x)=a(n)x(N) + a(n-1)x(N-1) +...a(1)x + a(0) has critical numbers at x=-1, 1, 2, 3, and corresponding values p(-1)=6, p(1)=1, p(2)=3, p(3)=1. Sketch a possible graph for p if: (a) N is odd, (b) N is even. [All parentheses are subscripts and superscripts for a and x, respectively.] So she was trying to explain her answer for the problem, and I was trying to figure out how p'(-1) did not exist. So after going in circles for probably 5 minutes after class, it dawned on me what she was saying. And she realized what I was saying. She was right, my answer was right, and my conclusion to her answer was wrong.
I guess it is good for me to be reminded of my humanity every now and then. It serves to keep me humble.
posted by Momof3 @ 3/14/2005
3 comments
3 Comments:
Okay Tom, time to fess up. Admit to pounding your head on the keyboard in a feeble attempt to figure the problem out.
But then again, you probably didn't stress your mind at all, since you didn't even try.
Vern, When I took Cal. I got a B. My wife got an A. The real point I find interesting is, and you know what I have done for a living most of my life...I have never use it! Oh well, always the first time! Also, I found humerous a news tidbit I heard the other morning, a few days back before heading to the shop. I was checking emails and heard this lady talking about a chimp or chimps attacking her and her husband at the zoo. I think her husband lost a finger and had many multiple bites and wounds and while she is talking about this to the news journalist in tears, she says the most dumbfounding thing....Seems her husband while under attack was trying to "REASON" with the chimps... I'm thnking????????? and visulizing my hair being pulled out, yes now is the time to reason??????NOT! I see me flipping them like pancakes by the tail!
Hang in there. Buddy!
See, my problem was not that I didn't understand the problem, Tom T. I just didn't understand how the answer in the back of the book was correct because it didn't have -1 as a local extreme value. They had a quite ambiguous answer.
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