Math classes!

My math classes have started! They are, so far, fantastic. As an update, rather than taking Hungarian Arts and Culture, I decided to take a class called Historical Aspects of Mathematics. It's three hours, once a week, and I think it will be very very interesting. The guy who is teaching it worked at the Mayo Clinic for a long time, so next time I get a chance to speak with him, I'll ask him about his experience. We worked through the way early civilizations found the answer to the quadratic equation using a compass. It was really facsinating, although ancient civilizations didn't know about negative numbers, so they had to use really obscure methods. As the teacher said, "they didn't understand negative goats, or negative wives, so they couldn't understand negative numbers." It really made me think what we might be missing just because we do not have the capacity to understand as of yet.

I attended a class called Elementary Problem Solving. While I'm not going to take it, it was a really neat experience for two hours. We had to find the center of a circle using only the ability to draw another circle from two points and a straight edge. We could not measure. It was really interesting and required extensive use of tangents and knowledge of trigonometry within circles.

I have not had Combinatorics or Real Functions and Measures yet, but I'm really excited for both of them. Today was my first day of Topology. It's intense. I have never had a real analysis course, so I might end up auditing it. It will be a really interesting class alongside my Real Functions and Measures course, but I think I'd prefer not to get credit for it and just learn about it in preparation for my last classes at Gustavus.

Number Theory... I can't say enough good things about number theory. It is the type of math that made me into a math major. We spent all two hours proving properties of prime numbers. When I first read the book Contact by Carl Sagan and learned about the subtelties of primes I knew I was in love. Now that I have a class focusing entirely on primes, parities, and the elegance of numbers I think I'm in love. I'm taking it with the less popular of the two teachers. However, I really like his teaching style, and the other guy is only popular because he's so eccentric. He is the type of teacher who calls students out in class expecting them to give an answer. While that style might work for some students, I prefer not to spend the entire class period nervous that I'll get called on and give an incorrect answer. There are so many unsolved problems in Number Theory, it's positively addicting. I really need to look through my notes though, I'm rusty on the binomial theorem, which is pretty crucial.

Other than class, I went ice skating on the huge ice skating rink the other day. It was a lot of fun, although I used muscles I didn't know I have. I didn't fall though! My ballet training makes it difficult for me to hold the appropriate stance for skating, thus usually leading to fights with gravity, with myself as the defeated party. It was a victorious experience.

I had my first Hungarian Goulash last night. It was fantastic and very inexpensive. It was rather like beef broth with tomato soup thrown in but watered down. It was not spicy in the way Mexican food is spicy, rather, it was flavorful and eclectic. It had beef, potatoes, and carrots in it.

To get to school I have to take Tram number 74. I've never had a commute to school before, other than walking or driving, or perhaps getting dropped off at the school bus. I walk a block down from my apartment and take a turn for two blocks. There's a stop there at which a tram stops every 5-7 minutes. I take it for 3 stops, and it drops me off less than a block from my school. On the way back I have to walk about three blocks to get to the nearest stop, but it lets me off about a block away from my apartment. It's a very efficient system and I feel sophisticated when I use it.

That's it for now. Happy Wednesday!