C is for . . .

Image courtesy: fitriahandayani

How does this image make you feel? Confused? Terrified? Nauseous? I gotta admit, it makes me nostalgic. Its been almost ten years since I stood in front of a class with a wicked gleam in my eye and uttered the phrase guaranteed to put fear into the hearts of my calculus students: Now clear your desk and get out one clean sheet of paper. Ah, those were the days.

Then again, I had to grade that crap afterward. Talk about scary.

These days, I like to see calculus used in a more literary sense:

"I try to make a rough music, a dance of the mind, a calculus of the emotions, a driving beat of praise out of the pain and mystery that surround me and become me. My poems are meant to make your mind get up and shout."

Judith Johnson Sherwin (b. 1936), U.S. poet. As quoted in Contemporary Poets, 3rd ed., by James Vinson (1980). Source

Now you're talking. Gotta like that even if you're not a writer. So here's today's question. Let's see how deep your math phobia really is. Would you rather (a) sign up for a 10 week calculus course, or (b) sign up for a 10 week swimming course to be held in water around, say, 66 degrees Fahrenheit?

Ready? Now get out one clean sheet of paper . . .