So when my professor asked me to read the `Know This' about combinations and permutations in class I was startled to see exclamation marks all over the page. At first I wondered if they are there to emphasize a number/letter and was tempted to read it with the appropriate inflections. As impressed as I was to find out that Math actually has an emotional side I played it safe, reading it as: "N exclamation and 2 exclamation blah, blah, blah..."
For ten minutes, no one laughed, corrected me or interrupted. When I was done my prof. explained in his sing song voice that "actually, in mathematics, the exclamation mark is called a factorial and has a value etc. etc."
I'm still looking for a place to bury my head in after that fiasco(:
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19 comments:
haha!! ROTFL....haha!!!!
love you for making me laugh like that today...:)
i remember when i went to the class here in US for the first time and they have software called Blackboard they use to put up all course documents etc which i had no clue of..first day in class and Prof asks the class if we are familar with Blackboard (As in s/w) and i looked at him curiously thinking who wouldn't be !!! am glad i did not open my stupid mouth, like I do more often than not!!!
Moi,
*Grin* Thanks! I was pretty mortified at first but all my engineering friends have been delighted with this story so I stopped caring:)
Lol @ the Blackboard story!
hahaha, why am I not surprised at all that this happened to you!!!
This post made my morning! Hahahaha! this is damn funny. Imagine all the factorials in my post and comments! LOL!
Okay, I'll puzzle you a bit more:
There are 10 types of people, those who know binary and those who don't.
Radha,
Thanks darlin'! Maybe its because the strangest mishaps keep happening to me(: I dread to think how much Hims, Gaurav etc. will laugh if they knew(:
Yoda,
Aaargh!! why would you do this to my poor brain? btw, how good are you @ GMAT quant? I'm looking for a tutor..seriously!
Ha Ha... Thats pretty funny. Did anyone take a picture of the look on your face when the prof told you about Factorials? ;)
Ok. I will bite and solve the puzzle that Yoda put. In Binary 10 equals the decimal 2. So we are pretty much saying that there are 2 kinds of people, those who know binary and those who don't.
I take it that you fall in the don't category. :)
Beautifully written, Megs, I had a big smile on my face all the way through. If I have been nurturing any thoughts about going back to school this certainly took care of it for me! ;)
meg u are so cute :):), are u preparing for your gmat? I'm doing the rounds with my GRE :), the factorial is lots of fun.
Suramya,
Thank you! When are you coming back to the US? We miss you!
Lotus,
Glad you liked it:) I doubt my decision may times too, but having come this far I might as well go the distance. What would you like to go back to school for?
Suramya,
Thank you:) I'm trying-so far not very successfully-to prepare for the GMAT. When are you giving the GRE? Good luck for it!
Well, I've never taken GMAT (a die hard techie). But I did score 800/800 on the GRE quant if that counts for anything ;-)
Yoda,
No wayyyyyy...I'm totally impressed!
Of course i told H !! I had to !! He was in splits as well !! :))
No prob...I'm beginning to see the humor in it myself:)
I just cracked up reading this post. It's too funny for us engineers to see such blissful ignorance :)
~Uma
Uma,
So nice to see you here! How have you been? I forget you're `clickable':) I'm glad my ignorance is of some use:)
Hi, Megs!
I would love to work with immigrants and refugees, so I guess I would need to take some law and some subjects in the field of social sciences, right? I need to go visit a guidance counselor. Thank you for asking.
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