tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14956470.post5945318887202592480..comments2023-09-23T06:20:06.687-04:00Comments on Pocahontas County Fare: Physics for FidoRebecca Claytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06494730619850791609noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14956470.post-920624247537581662009-11-17T12:08:57.665-05:002009-11-17T12:08:57.665-05:00I have a friend, a professor emeritus of physics, ...I have a friend, a professor emeritus of physics, a photographer, and a poet, who has a chapbook coming out soon called "Chasing Shroedinger's Cat." He gets very upset at the way poets use that cat as a metaphor because they get the science wrong. I'll send him a link to this post.<br /><br />Which I'm not sure how I missed -- I've been in some odd limbo state this fall.<br /><br />Having a son with a math disability was enough to disenchant me with public school approaches to math. They thought, because he could memorize the "math facts," he therefore couldn't solve logical problems.Sherryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08295623007228772234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14956470.post-51475211428924224142009-10-14T07:47:25.251-04:002009-10-14T07:47:25.251-04:00I'm surprised a poet doesn't like reductio...I'm surprised a poet doesn't like reductionism and abstraction--isn't part of the excitement of poetry the tension between evoking the material and emotional worlds while using words (abstractions) in formal or unconventional ways? <br /><br />I didn't like math in elementary school either--there was a lot of punishment for failure, and math is a skill that you practice, like music. You're bound to make mistakes, but if you practice, you get better at it.Rebecca Claytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06494730619850791609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14956470.post-22378382134049901012009-10-13T16:41:20.476-04:002009-10-13T16:41:20.476-04:00I'm not crazy about math because, at least at ...I'm not crazy about math because, at least at the lower levels we're taught in school, there's only one correct answer. Where's the fun in that? Also, it's the ultimate in reductionism and abstraction -- neither things I enjoy. Still, I recognize its fundamental importance, and do sometimes wish I could get more enthusiastic about it.<br /><br />I guess I am more puzzled and annoyed by the indifference of so many literary intellectuals to anything outside the humanities -- basically the whole of science, including anthopology.Davehttp://www.vianegativa.usnoreply@blogger.com