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I tutored English and the only thing I got was guys jealous at me and some of the girls hitting on me(but me being a thick 15 year old, I didn’t noticed it at the time)
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, C’MOOOOOOOON! I’m just waitin’ for it… get to the doing the sex part! Send all the shippers (me included) crazy! YOU KNOW YOU WANNA!
Maybe this time he’ll play it straight and actually play into our expectations? The swerve could be that there IS NO swerve! It’s like M. Night Shama-whatever, except with a guy that does WAY better storytelling!
Yep. Nothin’ to look forward to but safe, hot, not-subverting-expectations sex. Nothing can possib-lie go wrong this time…
I have actively ignored the sock gap just to prove that’s not true. However, the downside is that EVERY TIME I have sex now, I think about Jeff. I am doomed to an eternity of picturing that curly-haired bag of neurosis every time I’m makin’ it with a woman. That’s… goddammit…
No, you idiot! He put his bowtie into seduction mode. Bowties make you look like a dweeb until they’ve been untied. And then you look like a badass. True fact.
Think of it like Piccolo and Gohan’s weighted shoulderpads. He’s been “fighting” this whole time with a handicap.
He’s finally gotten to the point where he feels it necessary to dramatically toss the weighted duds aside with a mighty thud, prior to spending the next three minutes showing her what he’s capable of when he’s “done warming up”.
(If you couldn’t guess, I’m implying that he’s going to break into a Gilbert and Sullivan patter routine.)
C’mon, Jason, it’s been twenty years since Calculus for me, and I could still give a less circular explanation of dx than that. You’re deliberately tormenting Sal by keeping her here with lousy tutoring until she succumbs to nicotine withdrawal and sexual frustration, aren’t you?
(I just realized that I took Calc before DoA Sal was born. Holy Cheese, I’m old.)
I’d be interested in seeing a less circular definition. MY problem with whatever definition he was going to give was that it seems like its not right. dx is not a derivative. Its a differential. dx is really just another variable.
d(y(x)) = y'(x)*dx. So dy is a function of two variables: x and dx. (Note that if y = x we have d(x) = 1 * dx = dx . Also, dy/dx = (y'(x) * dx)/dx = y'(x) )
It suddenly occurs to me that if only these tutoring sessions were shown in more detail, then this could be part of a secret plot to improve mathematical literacy in webcomic readers.
By the way, it appears that my poor Billie/Sal ship is now under fire from both sides. Port and starboard sides. Port being an alcoholic beverage, and consequently Billie. I have no humorous explanation for why Sal is the starboard side.
She isn’t really asking the right question either or Jason isn’t explaining it right. With Math it’s not about what this is, it’s about what it does and how it works. You can explain theory all day but without any practical examples you’re not gonna get anywhere. At least that’s how it was with me. Practice it a few times and THEN the theory started making sense.
But I’d say that her stated problem is that she doesn’t know how to ask the right question. Being able to ask the right question gets you half the way to understanding the answer.
He ought to be trying to explain it in different ways, rather than simply how it primarily makes sense to him. Or he ought to recommend another tutor.
No, no, it’s not on YET… Sal’s still got her bike gloves on. They might be good for one type of riding, but not all of them.
Also, screw calculus. Figuratively and literally. I knew what dx was for all of about six months, ie from about the time we started covering it in class to the time of the exam. Nowadays? No chance.
Curve discussion … (eh, sketching isn’t quite the same)
Anyway, reading It’s Walky a 2nd time, I’d bet it takes them 5 years (real-life). Well, easy to falsify, so it‘s Science(tm).
It’s better than to regret good decisions. That’s always the same with me: I’m starting to get that I can be proven wrong, but still can’t assure myself to be proven right…
Can’t help but think he’s going to shoot her down. But he really should know better, undoing the tie and unleashing the sexy like that. I don’t think he even knows he’s taunting her.
Great amusement at her reaction to {his transition from panel one to panel five}, as well as at the transition itself.
—
(*mostly to self*) dx is an infinitesimal change in x, df(x) likewise for f(x), and df(x)/dx is effectively the slope of f(x). That much I remember. What I don’t remember, disturbingly, is why you subtract one from an x’s exponent and multiply its coefficient by its former exponent. C and x, yes, but x^2 or higher… hrm.
I now want to search that down and learn it intuitively again. By contrast, I remember enough about integration to recall that carrying it out usually involved a torturous toolbox of tricks for rearranging expressions into something that could be integrated. So that field I won’t be revisiting until I find a way to artificially augment my cognitive abilities substantially.
The derivative of x^2 is 2x, and that checks out with the negatives of the parabola, but /why/…
Oh gods. When trying to relearn this, inadvertently slammed into references to the product rule and the chain rule. Skin crawling to a startling degree, given how much I enjoyed maths in theory. Going and doing something completely utterly unrelated now. Curiosity being the problem.
df(x)/dx = f'(x), then there’s df'(x)/dx = f”(x), the slope of f'(x)… no problem there, but why… why is 2x the slope of x^2…!? I was actually taught that, yes? I wasn’t just taught what to do with the numbers without being told why!?
Newton’s quotient. f'(x) = the limit of [f(x+h) – f(x)]/h as h -> 0. h can be delta-x, or dx, if you prefer. For finite h the formula is the slope of a secant line connecting two points of the curve; as h goes to 0 it becomes the tangent line, the slope at a single point.
Plug in a polynomial like f(x)=x^2 and you should get 2x, if your algebra hasn’t atrophied. Trig derivatives are trickier, it’s easy to set up but you have to do some clever geometry to see that the limit of sin(h)/h is cos(h).
Belatedly noticed: dy/dx is the derivative of y with respect to x. ‘dx’ alone is not in fact a derivative of anything. If Jason is in fact trying to explain dx as as though it’s a derivative of something in itself (rather than a limit delta), this may somewhat explain why someone he’s teaching directly is having so much trouble.
Hoo boy, I feel that pain. I’ve been in Sal’s position of trying to force my brain around a concept that it refuses to understand and fully realizes it has no use for. My brain likes to put up blocks when it catches on that it’ll never see or use this information again outside the class.
dx is not a derivative, it’s a differential (an infinitesimally small increment of the variable x). A derivative would be dy/dx (the derivative of y with respect to x) or, in a different notation, Dy. No wonder Sal doesn’t understand.
If the course is on differential forms, it may still be a derivative. Granted, x isn’t the most common letter for a form… and differential forms aren’t usually taught to freshmen.
Actually, in a differential form usually dx (as in ω=a(x,y)dx + b(x,y)dy) is used as one of the base vectors of the dual of the space over which ω is defined. Not that this would help Sal much.
Never ask a TA a question like that. Pretty consistently they are clueless about the abstract concepts behind the subject and are only good for rote learning or working over specific problems. the place to go for a question like that is the actual professor in his office hours or hire a tutor who actually understands the comcepts and can explain them to a newbie.
Eh, generally math TAs should have a solid grap on elementary calculus and quite a lot more, otherwise they wouldn’t be awarded the position. It is true however, that young TAs often aren’t that good at teaching students, since often they were at the very top of their college class.
*Snork*! Sorry, I couldn’t help it. You just described the ideal. The reality is that a large portion of TAs are just recent grad students trying to get through their Master’s with a minimum of distraction. There are also a lot of people who do Calculus very well without really understanding it completely. Those people, who make up a major part of the TA community, are great for questions about specific problems and algorithms, but when you ask them something like “what is dx, really”, they can’t go beyond their “talking points” and just spit out the same thing over and over because they can’t afford to admit that they don’t really know. It’s not entirely their fault; the acid test of really understanding a concept is the be able to explain it to people who is starting from scratch. I don’t mean that they don’t have a basic background in Trig or Algebra, but newbies from a Calculus perspective. Concepts like dy and dx are very abstract and hard to pin down (actually Newton was pretty disdainful of them and preferred the simple “f'(x)” notation) and very frustrating when the person explaining them to you tends to take you on a circular primrose path.
Of course, the college also has a lot to do with it. One could probably more reasonably expect a TA from MIT to be up to the task than one from IU.
If she is not getting derivatives, try integrals… maybe a nice exponential… study the area under some curves… you know… have fun with it. Math is fun. ; )
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 20h
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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Oh, it’s so on.
Did you hear?
It’s so on.
The levels of on-ness are off the scales, that’s how on it is right now
It’s so on that it hurts.
It’s so on and it needs to get off.
I think they’re already getting off…
You can tell it’s the correct levels of On when it hurts just right.
Well that just magnifies the level of on-ness that’s going on right now.
It’s so on, it’s somewhat reminiscent of Donkey Kong.
It’s all the ons. There’s not even a little off left.
It is on in a way that is very much like Donkey Kong.
Your Rarity gravatar makes your post all the better.
http://youtu.be/ImgHoGgCn8U
oh please!!!!!!! please please please please PPPLLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSZZZZZZZEEEEE!!!!!!
do I have to beg?
lol
Those are some mighty sharp teeth.
Tell me about it. Does she file them to look scary, or is she just turning into a werewolf?
She has actually grit her teeth so hard that it became THAT.
Didn’t you know? A sex starved woman is a werewolf.
Just when you thought it was safe to tutor English….
I tutored English and the only thing I got was guys jealous at me and some of the girls hitting on me(but me being a thick 15 year old, I didn’t noticed it at the time)
I tutored english and got payed $15 an hour.
i tutered english and got payd eleventeen billyun an hour
I tutored bass, and got paid 15 beers an hour. I didn’t last two days, so I’m trying totutor english to get spayed a Billy then Eisenhower.
Now KISS!
She’s about to bone up on her English.
I laughed so hard lol
I imagine that she will get the thrust of his explanation.
If only she could wrap her head around his.
Their upper lips aren’t the only thing that’s stiff.
I bet she will be spotting some dick very soon.
“Keep Calm and Get it On.”
I think she’s starting to come around.
She will be needing that cigerette for what will happen very soon.
Ten minutes from now, HE’S going to need a cigarette.
He’s gotta conjugate her verbs out.
I see what ya did thar
So to speak.
Oh, he looks so rugged!
/swoon
All aboard the Jason train. Next stop – Bonertown
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, C’MOOOOOOOON! I’m just waitin’ for it… get to the doing the sex part! Send all the shippers (me included) crazy! YOU KNOW YOU WANNA!
Don’t raise your hopes! Willis only wants to send you crashing down!
Just like real life.
Willis is our school guidance counselor?
Willis disappointed me in bed once…
Maybe this time he’ll play it straight and actually play into our expectations? The swerve could be that there IS NO swerve! It’s like M. Night Shama-whatever, except with a guy that does WAY better storytelling!
Yep. Nothin’ to look forward to but safe, hot, not-subverting-expectations sex. Nothing can possib-lie go wrong this time…
Did Jacob just take OFF his BOWTIE?
This alternate universe sucks. I demand another.
Jason. Jacob hasn’t shown up in Dumbing of Age yet.
I acknowledge my failure to type on this one.
bow-ties are like socks, you best be taking those off before you get some action.
Some people like to do it with their socks ON.
Apparently, women are more likely to climax with socks on. I read it on them internets.
Well, they’re more likely to perform well if they don’t get…cold feet.
*gunshot* You deserved that. Getting shot is you PUNishment.
*shoots* and you deserve that. Getting shot is your GUNishment.
There’s a lot of violence developing here. I guess this is what happens when a Pun Is Meant
I have actively ignored the sock gap just to prove that’s not true. However, the downside is that EVERY TIME I have sex now, I think about Jeff. I am doomed to an eternity of picturing that curly-haired bag of neurosis every time I’m makin’ it with a woman. That’s… goddammit…
No, you idiot! He put his bowtie into seduction mode. Bowties make you look like a dweeb until they’ve been untied. And then you look like a badass. True fact.
He may have further bowties hidden about his person. You never know.
He has bowties stashed all over town, in case of bowtie emergancys.
I’m sensing the need for a side-comic, one about Jason and his Myriad of Stealthily-concealed ties.
The clock says it’s nearly a quarter past something.
Probably seven, unless they’ve moved the numbers around again.
I think that’s what happens during daylight savings time.
Let’s get daaaaaangerous~
I like Algebra, maybe I can give it the right-brained approach so Sal can better understand this
……Sal’s mouth in the 4th panel looks like a tiny boomerang. I will never unsee that.
I think I’d like to change my bet from Mike/Your Mom to Sal/Jason
Agreed!
Don’t worry, Mike/Your Mum are going at it right now.
So the BOWTIE was holding back all of his sexiness. He wears it as a PRECAUTION.
The bowtie is like a sexual=charisma dampener.
Not for the Doctor.
The Doctor’s bowtie works as a heatsink to prevent his hotness from cooking himself.
So THAT’S why he wears things that are cool!
So, Jason’s bowtie is a sexiness inhibitor or a restraint?
Think of it like Piccolo and Gohan’s weighted shoulderpads. He’s been “fighting” this whole time with a handicap.
He’s finally gotten to the point where he feels it necessary to dramatically toss the weighted duds aside with a mighty thud, prior to spending the next three minutes showing her what he’s capable of when he’s “done warming up”.
(If you couldn’t guess, I’m implying that he’s going to break into a Gilbert and Sullivan patter routine.)
Two potential answers, can’t decide what to use:
1) Yea, but it would take him the rest of the term to finish “warming up”.
2) Gilbert and Sullivan? That would be so many kinds of awesome.
A bowtie is to Jason as a Power-save belt is to a Machoke.
Well, it could be a beginning of a beautiful friendship or something else entirely.
It’s the beginning of a beautiful bonership.
I can honestly not think of a time, in either universe, that I have seen Jason so disheveled.
Which is saying something since he fought on the front lines of many battles in an intergalactic war.
PANEL FIVE!! PANEL FIVE!! I CHANGE MY ANSWER IN THE SITE POLL!!
Are you sure Mike hasn’t already boned your Mom?
Another reason why he’s changing it.
C’mon, Jason, it’s been twenty years since Calculus for me, and I could still give a less circular explanation of dx than that. You’re deliberately tormenting Sal by keeping her here with lousy tutoring until she succumbs to nicotine withdrawal and sexual frustration, aren’t you?
(I just realized that I took Calc before DoA Sal was born. Holy Cheese, I’m old.)
I’d be interested in seeing a less circular definition. MY problem with whatever definition he was going to give was that it seems like its not right. dx is not a derivative. Its a differential. dx is really just another variable.
d(y(x)) = y'(x)*dx. So dy is a function of two variables: x and dx. (Note that if y = x we have d(x) = 1 * dx = dx . Also, dy/dx = (y'(x) * dx)/dx = y'(x) )
For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_of_a_function
Anyway, my point was that using a derivative in the definition isn’t circular its just wrong.
Quick question, what course is Sal taking?
A course of penicillin.
It thin the blood, so it will circulate well to several “important” areas.
I hate to be that person, but that’s not how you untie a bowtie. You tug on both ends to undo the bow part and then undo the original simple knot.
Meanwhile, they are going to bone so good. I love it when a ship sails itself.
Maybe that’s what he did in panel four while the panel was on Sal.
I know that’s Sal’s left elbow in panel one, but when you look at it from another perspective…
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Well, we DID already get a dose of Walky-wang…
and the next panel will be empty chairs…
Slope! Just talk about how it’s the sideways part of the slope!
If I didn’t know better I’d say Jason’s about to offer her a more lung-healthy alternative to suck and blow on…
…I don’t know if my avatar is disapproving of my impropriety, or that I misspelled my own username. Damn iPhone.
It’s rare to see that face expression of her. She blushed too!
She wants to taste the lime.
Ahm I the only one who thinks Sal looks adorable in Panel 4?
To hell with Sal. I’ll take Jason. With a twist of lime.
Yes, it’s D-Agony and dx/dt….Coming Soon to a serialized parrallel multi-universal-many-arced-web-comic near you!
I so called this.
Am I the only one that has Sal as Applejack as the headcanon voice?
Grah! Now I’m gonna have to find a way to distract myself so that doesn’t commit to memory!
Nope. /)
Only if I can imagine Jason with Stephen Fry’s voice.
So, who thinks that Jason is fully aware of the sexual tension and just doesn’t give a flip about it?
It suddenly occurs to me that if only these tutoring sessions were shown in more detail, then this could be part of a secret plot to improve mathematical literacy in webcomic readers.
By the way, it appears that my poor Billie/Sal ship is now under fire from both sides. Port and starboard sides. Port being an alcoholic beverage, and consequently Billie. I have no humorous explanation for why Sal is the starboard side.
Nooo, she aint going to….naaaaah
I had a gigglegasm when I realized what was going on.
She isn’t really asking the right question either or Jason isn’t explaining it right. With Math it’s not about what this is, it’s about what it does and how it works. You can explain theory all day but without any practical examples you’re not gonna get anywhere. At least that’s how it was with me. Practice it a few times and THEN the theory started making sense.
But I’d say that her stated problem is that she doesn’t know how to ask the right question. Being able to ask the right question gets you half the way to understanding the answer.
He ought to be trying to explain it in different ways, rather than simply how it primarily makes sense to him. Or he ought to recommend another tutor.
No, no, it’s not on YET… Sal’s still got her bike gloves on. They might be good for one type of riding, but not all of them.
Also, screw calculus. Figuratively and literally. I knew what dx was for all of about six months, ie from about the time we started covering it in class to the time of the exam. Nowadays? No chance.
Curve discussion … (eh, sketching isn’t quite the same)
Anyway, reading It’s Walky a 2nd time, I’d bet it takes them 5 years (real-life). Well, easy to falsify, so it‘s Science(tm).
Can I change my poll answer?
Bow chika bow wow
That’s what my baby says.
No, you guys! Don’t do each other! It is a bad decision that you will regret! Remember that smart people always do the right thing!
It’s better than to regret good decisions. That’s always the same with me: I’m starting to get that I can be proven wrong, but still can’t assure myself to be proven right…
Hankius Pankae Superbus!…beautiful music commence…eine kleine bang bang
Next time on Dumbing of Age:
Sal and Jason are about to kiss and we are left with a cliff hanger for the weekend.
You mean for the month.
Can’t help but think he’s going to shoot her down. But he really should know better, undoing the tie and unleashing the sexy like that. I don’t think he even knows he’s taunting her.
Or maybe they’ll just get it over with and bone.
Hours? Chin up Jason. It’s been like 35 minutes at most according to that clock.
This is the only comic in the archives in which you can see a hand on the clock through the dialog balloons: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/crackin/
And it’s the hour hand.
Ahhh. That makes sense then. I thought he was just really lazy
This looks like a job for George Takei.
Sensors indicate a high probability of Hatefucking before the end of the storyline.
THIS.
Will not end will
It will not end, Will.
It will never end.
So Sal’s cotter is emerging to see it’s shadow?
i knew if i read long enough this strip would turn into a 70’s porn movie.
Great amusement at her reaction to {his transition from panel one to panel five}, as well as at the transition itself.
—
(*mostly to self*) dx is an infinitesimal change in x, df(x) likewise for f(x), and df(x)/dx is effectively the slope of f(x). That much I remember. What I don’t remember, disturbingly, is why you subtract one from an x’s exponent and multiply its coefficient by its former exponent. C and x, yes, but x^2 or higher… hrm.
I now want to search that down and learn it intuitively again. By contrast, I remember enough about integration to recall that carrying it out usually involved a torturous toolbox of tricks for rearranging expressions into something that could be integrated. So that field I won’t be revisiting until I find a way to artificially augment my cognitive abilities substantially.
The derivative of x^2 is 2x, and that checks out with the negatives of the parabola, but /why/…
Oh gods. When trying to relearn this, inadvertently slammed into references to the product rule and the chain rule. Skin crawling to a startling degree, given how much I enjoyed maths in theory. Going and doing something completely utterly unrelated now. Curiosity being the problem.
df(x)/dx = f'(x), then there’s df'(x)/dx = f”(x), the slope of f'(x)… no problem there, but why… why is 2x the slope of x^2…!? I was actually taught that, yes? I wasn’t just taught what to do with the numbers without being told why!?
….no, no, no….
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1914
?
Newton’s quotient. f'(x) = the limit of [f(x+h) – f(x)]/h as h -> 0. h can be delta-x, or dx, if you prefer. For finite h the formula is the slope of a secant line connecting two points of the curve; as h goes to 0 it becomes the tangent line, the slope at a single point.
Plug in a polynomial like f(x)=x^2 and you should get 2x, if your algebra hasn’t atrophied. Trig derivatives are trickier, it’s easy to set up but you have to do some clever geometry to see that the limit of sin(h)/h is cos(h).
Belatedly noticed: dy/dx is the derivative of y with respect to x. ‘dx’ alone is not in fact a derivative of anything. If Jason is in fact trying to explain dx as as though it’s a derivative of something in itself (rather than a limit delta), this may somewhat explain why someone he’s teaching directly is having so much trouble.
Precisely this. I am putting all the blame here on Jason, who is clearly unable or unwilling to explain the underlying concepts.
Hoo boy, I feel that pain. I’ve been in Sal’s position of trying to force my brain around a concept that it refuses to understand and fully realizes it has no use for. My brain likes to put up blocks when it catches on that it’ll never see or use this information again outside the class.
And then your mind immediately leapt to sex, I presume, because that’s how it works?
There is nothing sexier than derivatives. NOTHING.
Quaternions?
LIKE!
I very much like where this seems to be going
Um… and how about that Sohcahtoa, amiright?
*sighs and goes back to the kiddie table*
dx is not a derivative, it’s a differential (an infinitesimally small increment of the variable x). A derivative would be dy/dx (the derivative of y with respect to x) or, in a different notation, Dy. No wonder Sal doesn’t understand.
If the course is on differential forms, it may still be a derivative. Granted, x isn’t the most common letter for a form… and differential forms aren’t usually taught to freshmen.
If only Sal could read the comments section.
Actually, in a differential form usually dx (as in ω=a(x,y)dx + b(x,y)dy) is used as one of the base vectors of the dual of the space over which ω is defined. Not that this would help Sal much.
Jason undid his bowtie. Meanwhile in another comic Clark has taken off his glasses.
Shit just got real.
without the bow-tie Jason is pretty kickin it.
Never ask a TA a question like that. Pretty consistently they are clueless about the abstract concepts behind the subject and are only good for rote learning or working over specific problems. the place to go for a question like that is the actual professor in his office hours or hire a tutor who actually understands the comcepts and can explain them to a newbie.
Eh, generally math TAs should have a solid grap on elementary calculus and quite a lot more, otherwise they wouldn’t be awarded the position. It is true however, that young TAs often aren’t that good at teaching students, since often they were at the very top of their college class.
*Snork*! Sorry, I couldn’t help it. You just described the ideal. The reality is that a large portion of TAs are just recent grad students trying to get through their Master’s with a minimum of distraction. There are also a lot of people who do Calculus very well without really understanding it completely. Those people, who make up a major part of the TA community, are great for questions about specific problems and algorithms, but when you ask them something like “what is dx, really”, they can’t go beyond their “talking points” and just spit out the same thing over and over because they can’t afford to admit that they don’t really know. It’s not entirely their fault; the acid test of really understanding a concept is the be able to explain it to people who is starting from scratch. I don’t mean that they don’t have a basic background in Trig or Algebra, but newbies from a Calculus perspective. Concepts like dy and dx are very abstract and hard to pin down (actually Newton was pretty disdainful of them and preferred the simple “f'(x)” notation) and very frustrating when the person explaining them to you tends to take you on a circular primrose path.
Of course, the college also has a lot to do with it. One could probably more reasonably expect a TA from MIT to be up to the task than one from IU.
Example:
“What’s dx supposed to be?”
“A derivative.”
“What’s a derivative?”
“It’s what you get when you figure out dy/dx.”
Dat Derivative……
I guess it’s time for Sal’s….
(puts on glasses)
Cumming of Age…
Unleash your anger, Sal. Give in to the desire for angry sex.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
…I’ve read a lot about the innuendo but honestly panel 2 seems like it’s ripped out of the Doom comic.
RIP AND TEAR! RIP AND TEAR YOUR GUTS!
I keep hearing about other comics that are apparently related to DoA, but there’s no links page, so I have no idea how to find them. Help?
Shortpacked, Roomies!, It’s Walky and Joyce & Walky?
http://www.shortpacked.com and http://www.itswalky.com (that site has both Roomies! and It’s Walky!. Willis is working on uploading Roomies! in chronological order, too, at http://www.bringbackroomies.com.)
Is that what you were looking for?
If she is not getting derivatives, try integrals… maybe a nice exponential… study the area under some curves… you know… have fun with it. Math is fun. ; )
Ho. Ly. Crap. I just realized what an abysmally terrible tutor Jason really is.
She’s having trouble understanding *what* dx is. And he doesn’t say, “It’s how x changes”
I mean, no, it’s not a perfect explanation, but it’s way better than just repeated “the derivative” over and over. Jason sucks.
dx isn’t a derivative, it’s a differential.
I think I might know one of the inportant ones you need, and I think I can help you with it