Contemplating infinity (or is it fractals?)

I am about to show my general ignorance for mathematical concepts so please forgive me. I’m just kinda riffing along here.

For some reason, looking at the branches on these trees reminds me of when I was like four or five and regularly contemplated infinity. I did this by folding pieces of paper in half and half again and again and again… Until I couldn’t fold them any more because I had a thick little wad of paper. But my brain understood that if I could work with a thin enough material I could continue to fold and fold and fold until… Forever…

I can’t verbally articulate what I’m thinking about the branches and infinity. Or are they more like fractals? Or a wee bit of both?

The concept of infinity is formally taught in calculus I think. My ignorance may be showing again. But limits, right? Nowadays a lot of kids take calculus in high school. Sault Ste. Siberia did not offer it back in my day except for people like my music buddy Rothy who was so good at math he got to take it at the college. Heck, high school teachers still kept paddles in their rooms back then. And they sometimes used them, although usually not if you made it onto the “college track”.

I did take a semester of calculus in college. I consistently got As in that class! Yay me! Problem? It was a LOT of work and that was not compatible with being a music major, which takes hours and hours of practice and rehearsal time. So I didn’t continue on any kind of math curriculum. Music may seem like a bad choice but it helped give me the “chops” to become a systems analyst. And that is also too hard to verbally articulate.

Bonus? Getting A grades in calculus was helpful in deterring attention from boyz in the class who thought they wanted to date me, not knowing anything about, well, my persnickety preferences in men, just for one thing.

Boy: Wow, calculus was really hard wasn’t it? What grade did you get?

KW: A.

Boy: [Ulping noise]

Ah well. Today I made Chex mix, worked on make-ahead gravy, and started *seriously* thawing our turkey, which is probably bigger than I wanted but pandemic ordering is what it is and I will use the leftovers. Oh, and I also worked for, you know, money. But maybe not tomorrow. We’ll just have to see what happens 🐽

Orangya glad I didn’t blahg about tRump again today? 🐽🐽🐽

7 Responses to “Contemplating infinity (or is it fractals?)”

  1. Margaret Says:

    I can’t imagine calculus in college although I took some hard sciences like astronomy and oceanography. As you said, time-consuming. You make me want to whip up some Chex mix, but it would require too many boxes of Chex.

  2. Jay Says:

    I took calculus for a few years in college. My problem was starting it without having pre-calc. I spent a lot of time with the TA. But he was nice, I think because I was trying to understand the concepts. He was much better than the TA in Inorganic Chemistry who didn’t have a great command of English if I recall correctly. On the first day he asked us to line up alphabetically, as if we knew each other. Sam was in that class too.

  3. jane Says:

    Infinity makes me think of Pooh and winning some contest at a bookstore by guessing the farthest from the number of gum balls in the jar. (it was negative infinity)

  4. Pooh Says:

    Harry’s take on infinity: “A ham and two people.”

  5. Pooh Says:

    Another thought. (You know, so the first one won’t be lonely.)

    They are teaching algebraic concepts in elementary school now! They don’t call it algebra, but will give an equation like: 10 – x = 6, and ask the student to figure out what x should be.

    One girl said, “oh, I know this, this is algebra!”
    Me: “Why do you think that?”
    Girl: “Because my brother is in 8th grade, and I had to help him with his algebra homework!”

    Today’s challenge problem: Can you cut a pie into 5 equal pieces, using only a compass and a straight edge? (Well, you can use a knife to cut it with, so your straight edge doesn’t get all sticky.)
    2020: “Who needs 5 pieces, we’re all eating with our pod of 2!!!”

    Love and virtual hugs to all my fellow podsters

  6. jane Says:

    Harry actually says that ‘eternity’ is a ham and two people.

  7. Pooh Says:

    I stand corrected.