This was sort of an invited letter to the editor of the College of Wooster student newspaper, The Wooster Voice, published in the first issue of the Fall 2003 semester.
For my letter, I've created a Math/CS mini-course!
If you use phrases like "nontrivial" and "with respect to" in your everyday speech or if you've ever spent a Friday night fscking, this course is for you. On the other hand, if you think Euler's Theorem was proposed by a hockey team and magic squares are something you get high on, this course is for you, too.
Here it is: Essential Math and Computer Science for the College of Wooster Student!
"There's more than one way to do it." -- motto of Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language)
More-than-one-way-to-do-it-ness is unavoidable at COW. There's more than one way to learn, to expand, to make mistakes; more than one way to have a good time (yes, even in Wooster, OH); more than one way to procrastinate; more than one way to annoy your roommate, and the administration (usually not at the same time); more than one way to sleep (nighttime, daytime, not at all); more than one way to dress (trendy, casual, not at all); more than one way to circumvent those silly rules like "no pets" and "no air conditioners." Unity, uniformity, homogeneity -- all are overrated.
Googol = 10100
"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet." -- George W. Bush
Rampant curiosity and a constant internet connection: thanks to that combination, I've learned so many things. For example, I've learned what words the president has stumbled over recently, when Mr. T died (this turned out to be a rumor!), how to make fortune cookies, how to pick locks, and much more. Frequent use of search engines, I believe, is a healthy habit for any college student, and it's startling how much you can find. In fact, the only thing I haven't been able to find is a definition of postmodernism.
Newton's Third Law of Motion: FAB = -FBA
Throughout my college search, admissions people were always saying, "At any college, you get out of it what you put into it." At the time, I assumed this was just another marketing ploy, like "Why, yes, the food here is great!" Little did I suspect that fundamental principles of physics were involved.
"[Godel's] incompleteness theorem showed that in any language expressive enough to describe the properties of the natural numbers, there are true statements that are undecidable: their truth cannot be established by any algorithm." -- Stuart Russel & Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence
When I was young and foolish (oh, maybe a year ago), I thought that, in matters of philosophy, religion, and almost everything else, the facts of the world led one along a rational path to true conclusions. Yet, I couldn't understand why, on a campus full of reasonably intelligent people, their opinions diverged so widely... perhaps flawed logic, exacerbated by drinking?
Since then, I've become convinced that most people who disagree with me aren't just being silly. In fact, given Godel's incompleteness theorem, I think it is vital to agree to disagree.
Thank you for your attention. Have a great year!