Bimodals

There are very few things that I remember from classes I've taken. One of them is the Bimodal, which I learned about in Statistics. We were learning about different types of curves and situations in which you would see them. The bimodal is the curve that defines the grade distribution in classrooms. What happens is that there are two normal curves right next to each other, one centered over D's and one centered over B's. Dr. Edwards said this is because there are two types of people: Those who try and those who don't. If everyone tried there would be a normal curve, but since there are two types of people there are two normal curves overlapping each other.

Anyway, I have seen two bimodal curves in fencing. First, the percentage of matches that the fencer wins and second the number of matches that the fencer has fought.

The first one starts out as a very drastic bimodal. Everyone either wins their first one or loses their first one. Everyone is either 100% or 0%. Obviously since for every winner there is a loser, there would be a bimodal. Interestingly, the curve become more and more normal as time progresses as people with good first days start having bad days and people with bad first days start having good days.

The second one starts out normal. Everyone fences pretty much the same number the first day. Everyone fights about 1-4 matches. However as time passes it becomes clear the people who fight four the first day will fight four for the rest of the season and people who fight one will only fight one a day for the rest of the season. Therefore in a matter of weeks there is a huge discrepancy in the number of matches and we have our bimodal: People who fence a lot and people who fence a little.

David finished Calculus!

This morning, David finished his Calculus book. I figured it was worth noting because:

a) it is not every day you finish calculus, and

b) it is not every day someone finishes calculus before hitting 100 lbs.

As Dad said, David might be the first person to finish Calculus before reaching 100 lbs since Isaac Newton, who was just a puny squirt when he invented calculus. Imagine that. Of course, he was actually about 15 when he finished inventing Calculus and was probably over 100 lbs, but hey. Who really cares?

P.S. I was 15 when I finished Calculus AP, so I was probably over 100 lbs. Alas.

Math Whiz

Today, Luke learned how to multiply by 11. First he had to write down every multiple of 11 down a list that said 11 x 1 = ____, 11 x 2 = ____, 11 x 3 = ____, etc. Then they asked him some review problems to see if he understood the material. Here is his answer sheet:

1. Look at the addition problems. Why is it easy to add 11?
Luke's Answer: 2+11=13

Duncan's Response: WHAT THE HECK!? What does the miraculous fact that 2+11=13 have to do with ANYTHING!?

2. Look at all the products. What pattern do you see in the first nine products?
Luke's Answer: 4

Duncan's Response: ... What can I say? I still don't understand why Luke put down 4 in the space where they wanted an answer to a short-answer question.

3. What do you think 11 x 0 is and why?
Luke's Answer: 0. Because easy.

Duncan's Response: ... migraine migraine migraine.

4. What do you think 11 x 13 is and why?
Luke's Answer: 124. Because hard.

Duncan's Response: Why is my brother a caveman? 124 isn't even the right answer.

5+5 Summit!

Something weird happened last night while the Three Musketeers were eating ice cream. (That would be Duncan, Andrew, and David, for those who aren't familiar with McPherson Terminology.) Suddenly, Andrew, who had been staring at my shirt for some time which read "If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. SUMMIT!", shouted "5+5! SUMMIT!"

"What?" I asked, figuring that Andrew was acting weird again.

"5+5!!" GRIIIN. "SUMMIT!"

It was like reading a convoluted dying message by a professor who is trying to tell you both the murderer's name and his method in one word.

"My God, Duncan, you are SO stupid!" said David, who might I point out, took the name of the Lord his God in vain on the sabbath, thus breaking two commandments in one sentence. Three if you count Jesus' spiel on to insult your brother is to murder him. And he probably wasn't exactly honoring his father and his mother either!

"What? What?" I said looking back and forth at their two demented grins.

"Everyone knows the answer to this question! It's ten!" David said.

"Huh?"

"5+5! Sum! It!" David said.

So, as you can see, it was just Andrew being weird again.

Hmmmm

The math lab people have still not contacted me about this new job. I have no idea what it entails and I'm hoping they'd be willing to let me disappear for the month of June. It's weird because the new semester began last week. I'd think they would have something for me to do, some meeting to attend, some student to teach, etc. There's zip. Nothing. Well, if they never contact me, it won't matter that I leave for a month. I can't lose a job I'm not doing, now can I?

That was a lot easier than I thought it would be

Today, I finished a biology final and had some time on my hands so I waltzed on over to room 205 in the EMCS and promptly filled out an application. I asked if I had to come back for an interview but the woman, who was clearly the head honcho, just gazed at me for a while and said "No. I'll call you if I need you."

I'm starting to suspect that it was too easy. They probably looked at my application and realized I was a complete incompetent when they saw that I put the word "Homeschool" down where it says "High School:". Or maybe they were tipped off when I had to call home to get my social security number.

When it asked for "Previous tutoring experience, formal and informal," I put "Teaching elementary school children Latin." Ha ha. How I love ambiguity. It's oh so iffy!

By the way, when it says "Put your last two classes down here:" They don't mean your last two math classes. They mean the two classes you took most recently, whether it be English, Science, Math, or whatever. They probably want to get the dirt on you from your teachers. Ha. Good luck with that. My teachers love me. I'm the best.