About five minutes later they returned with friends. I'd already learned they were only 15 and they weren't hostile, so I was more annoyed than intimidated. From my original encounter it was clear that they were bored and just wanting someone to pester and talk to for entertainment, so I developed a good plan. As they approached I told them I'd talk only if they could solve a maths problem I gave them. I wrote down an infinite geometric series and asked them to find the sum

They were fairly bright and one of them quickly told me it was one. The others argued with him saying it wasn't really one, it was naught point nine repeating. I then proceeded to demonstrate the equivalence of the two. By this point in time the most obnoxious of the group had grown bored. He seemed a little obsessed with his recently discovered genitalia, so he preferred drawing pictures all over my paper while I regaled the others in some more maths. Several of them were vaguely familiar with the notion of differentiation, so we talked about basic calculus, the exponential function, the concept of Taylor series, etc. It worked out quite nicely since the interested guys kept the others in check. Eventually the group ran along, but I convinced three of them to stick around long enough to see the derivation for what is perhaps the most beautiful formula of elementary mathematics.

1 comment:
Well I suppose this answers my question about whether your text message was serious. This could be a good start for a made-for-tv movie...
Post a Comment