tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post573859506583163194..comments2023-10-29T06:41:23.910-07:00Comments on Halfway There: 2 z or not 2 zZenohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09058127284297728552noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-74519645603595225542008-05-30T13:51:00.000-07:002008-05-30T13:51:00.000-07:00My grad school Algebra professor used to hand-writ...My grad school Algebra professor used to hand-write all his assignments for us. I recall one assignment in which one of the problems featured a matrix which had 3's all down the main diagonal. It took me hours of utter incomprehension (not unusual for me in grad school, sadly, so I didn't think anything of it) before I realized they were all very poorly drawn <EM>xi</EM>'s. Upon which I remarked, "Oh! I get it now," stretching the truth somewhat... I also remember feeling very sad by the further realization that numbers had qualitatively less inherent meaning for me than Greek letters. A strange moment indeedAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-88459963909095825922007-09-22T18:48:00.000-07:002007-09-22T18:48:00.000-07:00Old thread, but I migrated here from a Sunclipse t...Old thread, but I migrated here from a Sunclipse thread.<BR/><BR/>I forced myself to use the slashed z <I>specifically because</I> I couldn't tell the difference between my Zs and my 2s. Cal3 taught me the importance of disambiguation.<BR/><BR/>Similarly, I now do Us as a single curve without a downstroke, ever since being introduced to the du notation for integration by parts. Otherwise I can't tell it from my Ns and Ses. Strangely, my 5s used to fall into the same handwriting equivalence class, until I adopted my wife's practice of drawing them in two strokes, with the body coming first and a strong cap finishing them off.TabAtkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16627740022743842036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-62364525021805780982007-08-31T08:53:00.000-07:002007-08-31T08:53:00.000-07:00I am an European, but I honestly wouldn't see a Z ...I am an European, but I honestly wouldn't see a Z at the places you annotated that the 2 was indeed a Z. And about the Greek letters: I sympathise with you. I'm just a student, but some of my letters have to be terrible, although I doubt if any of my theta's have been interpreted as a phi.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-59899246642750161952007-07-26T11:59:00.000-07:002007-07-26T11:59:00.000-07:00Thanks for another post that had me laughing throu...Thanks for another post that had me laughing throughout.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-88654733582776109142007-07-19T12:45:00.000-07:002007-07-19T12:45:00.000-07:00Omigawd, Lifewish. That's not cause for quiet scre...Omigawd, Lifewish. That's not cause for <I>quiet</I> screaming. That's cause for <I>loud</I> screaming. I hope you survived the experience.Zenohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09058127284297728552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-39581302445207931492007-07-19T11:32:00.000-07:002007-07-19T11:32:00.000-07:00Hey, you think it's bad trying to distinguish your...Hey, you think it's bad trying to distinguish your students' greek letters? Imagine how bad it is for a student if your <I>lecturer</I> does them all the same. Now imagine it's your Vector Calculus lecturer. Now scream quietly.Lifewishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07133804300464048756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-29814275579430659392007-07-19T04:45:00.000-07:002007-07-19T04:45:00.000-07:00As a holder of a degree in architecture, I can tel...As a holder of a degree in architecture, I can tell you that lettering is in many ways a lost art. With all the computers and plastic templates out there, it is difficult to convince most people of the need to learn proper lettering. I write in all caps myself, although my lower case letters are half size. There is never any danger of myself or anyone else struggling to read my writing. I will even print when scripting Russian, which no native speakers ever do. <BR/><BR/>Obviously, the era of texting and typing has limited the amount of time these student practice writing by hand. If it were up to me, rather than spend years in elementary school teaching cursive handwriting, I would instead spend that time perfecting printed lettering. I would certainly include numbers, superscripts and subscripts, Greek characters, and other common math notations. In typing classes, it is common for students to type strings of gibberish to test themselves and I think we ought to try to same thing with hand lettering. A first of second grader doesn't need to understand the complicated string of mathematical notation before them, they only need to be able to accurately replicate it. I think something like this might circumvent the Z/2 problem.<BR/><BR/>(Historical not: The character Z was commonly used as 2 right up until mechanical printing presses gained popularity.)Mr. Lucchesehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11489214765844797652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-21600246147351577072007-07-18T07:44:00.000-07:002007-07-18T07:44:00.000-07:00I had to laugh at this...because I've seen the exa...I had to laugh at this...because I've seen the exact same z/2 confusion in some of my students.Qalmleahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17131154882107531113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-6993754002494988872007-07-17T16:57:00.000-07:002007-07-17T16:57:00.000-07:00That is unquestionably true, anonymous, and I've u...That is unquestionably true, anonymous, and I've used some of those packages. However, only one student has ever used a computer to take notes in one of my math classes, and he had an electronic tablet on which he used a stylus, not a keyboard. Handwriting is still a lot more flexible than keyboard entry when it comes to recording steps in a mathematical computation.Zenohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09058127284297728552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-54228841880221727902007-07-17T16:48:00.000-07:002007-07-17T16:48:00.000-07:00Of course, there's always Mathematica, Matlab, Mat...Of course, there's always Mathematica, Matlab, Mathcad, Mupad, and a few dozen other software packages out nowadays. <BR/><BR/>Personally, I always found carefully-formed handwritten symbols and equations aesthetically pleasing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com