![[sex and science]](http://www.sunclipse.org/downloads/sexandscience3.png)
How does one make grading papers a survivable ordeal? Why, the same way one handles a "scientific" talk by a creationist: by playing Bingo, of course. From 3σ → Left:
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Blake Stacey is a physics boffin who wandered the Earth and eventually settled in the nation-state of Denial. He has written a science-fiction novel.
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Prealgebra/Algebra I Bingo
Category: Mathematics • Wobosphere Silliness
Posted on: December 11, 2008 3:19 PM, by Blake Stacey
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Comments
Ok, I admit that this particular music professor hasn't had a math class in a long while, but I get all of these except the f to the -1 power one. What's wrong with it?
Posted by: p4limpsest | December 11, 2008 7:41 PM
p4limpsest: that notation means the inverse function. That is, f^{-1} is a function so that if you do f, then f^{-1} (or the other way around) you end up with exactly what you started with. It's not the multiplicative inverse, which is what the student has confused it with.
Posted by: John Armstrong | December 11, 2008 8:18 PM
Ahhh! Thanks. So if f is x + 2 then f^-1 is x - 2?
Posted by: p4limpsest | December 11, 2008 8:24 PM
Here "-1" is actually the symbol for the inverse of a function, not the reciprocal of a function. For example if f(x) = x^3, then f(x)^(-1) is the cube root of x.
Signed,
A Math Instructor Who Is Giggling Madly
Posted by: Mojave66 | December 11, 2008 8:25 PM
I had a student ask me today if he could turn in every single homework assignment of the semester late because he "made bad decisions." Do I win?
Posted by: Ben | December 11, 2008 9:20 PM
Ben: I had a student show up for the final I haven't seen all semester. Like, I figured he'd withdrawn during shopping period. I had never seen him before. At all.
Posted by: John Armstrong | December 12, 2008 12:41 AM
The f-1 one took me a minute too. f-1(x)=1/f(x) would have been more clear, at least to me. Otherwise pretty great though. I may have to come up with something similar for intro Mechanics.
Posted by: Eric | December 12, 2008 1:59 AM
...I saw all of these in calculus students at one point. And as for the student who "made bad decisions"...I know I guy who tried to pull that for a Differential Geometry class. He was, fortunately, laughed out of the prof's office.
Posted by: Charles Siegel | December 12, 2008 2:04 AM
Hah, I'd almost be willing to take the Differential Geometry student up on that. Lock him in a room for 24 hours with a semester's worth of differential geometry problems. Either he's a genius and he'll get them all done, or it will be a very sad 24 hours for him.
Posted by: Ben | December 12, 2008 11:49 AM
In the bottom row, second from the right, I'm unclear as to what the specific problem is.
Is it that negative-6 mysteriously becomes positive-6, or is it that this person doesn't understand that (s)he was supposed to use the quadratic formula to solve for x?
I suspect the latter--but then the missing minus appears to be a typo, no?
Posted by: Rieux | December 12, 2008 12:02 PM
You don't need the quadratic formula to solve that equation, as the left-hand side factors into (x+3)(x+2). The problem was most likely intended to be solved by factoring, the joke being that the factoring was done in a harebrained way (thus not getting an answer).
Posted by: Blake Stacey | December 12, 2008 1:01 PM
...which implies that the dropped minus was indeed a typo on the bingo board?
Posted by: Rieux | December 12, 2008 9:52 PM
Or, I suppose, a secondary joke about students who drop minus signs (which I know from [ahem] personal experience can happen). You're welcome to fix it in Photoshop! :-)
Posted by: Blake Stacey | December 13, 2008 9:14 AM