Journal: News & Comment

Whew!

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My wife teaches grade 8 math (as well as grades 9–12), so I was a bit worried that I might do poorly in the online 8th grade math quiz (via Hey Jo!), and then have some explaining to do.

Happily, even without a calculator, I managed 9 out of 10, and my error was in working too fast: I calculated volume instead of surface area for one question. Still, it wasn't simple.

I seemed to hit the limits of my mathematical abilities after differential calculus in 1986, my first year of university. In that course, I received a decent 78%. Integral calculus, in the first term of 1987, flummoxed me and I squeaked by with 52%. That may have been generosity from the instructor, because I came out of the final exam nearly certain I had failed. And, so far, I haven't had to evaluate an integral since.

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