When English Majors Do Physics...

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I solved the Mars problem the night before last.  Triumphant, I walked into class yesterday to show my professor the bottom line.  "It certainly looks like the right answer," he said with a grin.

And it did -- until he started going through the problem on the board.  His solution looked nothing like mine and, to further compound my distress, I couldn't follow a thing he was doing.

In my years of teaching, I've come across a number of students who have difficulty in processing language, particularly in reading.  Well, I've long suspected I have a similar "wiring issue" in my brain that makes manipulation of numbers difficult for me.  It's like things in my brain start going in circles and I can't grab ahold of any of it.  It turns into a swirling mess in my mind and I simply can't think.  Everything shuts off.

So I left class yesterday confused and worried.  My end numbers were off, but only by a little bit, which could be a rounding error somewhere along the way.  But why did my solution look nothing like the professor's?  And why couldn't I follow what he did?

Well, I just paid my professor a visit and we went through my solution, and I realized, watching the expression on his face as he looked at what I'd done, that we were speaking two different languages.  He speaks the language of symbols (which I couldn't follow yesterday), and I use words (which bogged him down in his search for symbols).

So my Mars problem solution was right, in the end, and after talking with my professor today, yesterday's class (and its symbols) are more clear.

My agenda for the weekend involves many things, but not physics problems!  I think maybe I'll give that part of my brain a chance to rest!  Instead, I'll  curl up with a good book.  A few weeks ago, I picked up Buzz Aldrin's memoirs, Magnificent Desolation.  While waiting for the astronomy professor, I began reading it, and, as of page 5, I'm already hooked.  In every interview I've seen, Buzz has always struck me as humble and grateful, and someone I would genuinely like in real life, so I'm really looking forward to learning more about him.

From where I'm sitting, in a gallery/hallway at the university's science building, the sky looks very full, as if it's about to do something.  Perhaps I should go home before it starts.  No point in getting wet if I don't have to, right?