smash_logs | Pre-semester Math & Science 'Stravaganza [Open!]

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Pre-semester Math & Science 'Stravaganza [Open!]

Who: Gordon, Eirika, Mac, all other interested students, anyone who wants to sit in.
What: The much-requested booster classes in math and science
Where: Gordon's teaching lab
When: Sometime during the summer IDK
Warnings: Improper integrals. Scandalous!

Th summer gets away from us fast. Before we know it, the grass and brushes are looking tired, their blooms faded and unenthusiastic, and the leaves lens-flare green, overblown and spent. Gordon had scheduled the brush-up classes to be around this time, so that his students would have it fresh in their memory for the next semester which was mere weeks away.

They were less structured than his normal classes. Topics came as the students asked about them. Attendance wasn't even required for all sessions; Gordon had faith that if they had something better to do that week, then they'd show up later.

(It said a lot that he actually had faith in his students now. It's a far cry from the privileged trust-fund junior engineers at MIT.)

Basically... it was less a class and more a club. They'd meet up, and chat about science. Gordon himself realized that during the very LAST session in fact, but he kept it to himself with a quiet snicker before he stepped into the room.

"Morning, class. So, what have we got this morning?"

[OOC info: the open-forum structure means any character can tag in with a topic they want to know more about, and Gordon will do his best to answer! Feel free to hijack threads all over the place, have them discuss it between each other, chat about random stuff and disrupt the class, spread rumors, flirt, WHATEVER.]

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Math is ridiculous, Eirika thinks as she listens and observes. Except she knows it's not. It just feels ridiculous and how it feels is good enough for her.

But it does give her something else to focus on, which she winds up appreciating.

Lifting her hand - as old habits die hard, regardless of how casual things are during the summer - she speaks up, "Far be it from me to question the curriculum, but I wish to know the real practicality of these formulas. Scientific study, certainly, but beyond that? Without specific employ in this kind of research, I think the gaggle of numbers is a little frustrating."

Yes, Eirika. Tell everyone how you really feel.

"You mean, 'what good is math in the real world?'"

He can't help but grin at the the question, which has been echoed in classrooms a billion times before. He takes a moment to think...

"Science isn't all about huddling in a laboratory with silly hieroglyphics smeared onto a blackboard." He jokes, waving at said silly hieroglyphics with an idle hand. "This applies to surveying, which gives better maps, and engineering, which builds roads and bridges and wins wars with fewer casualties and in less time. Also you won't have much luck figuring out how much of which reagent to use in a reaction without math, which eliminates everything from making leather and soap to neutralizing poisonous gas.

"I'm sure there are others, but those are just the first things that come to mind."

Hieroglyphics isn't the word she'd use for it. In fact, his own usage makes her lift an eyebrow as she listens to his explanation attentively. At least he thinks it's amusing. It's probably one of the few times Eirika has actually sounded her age. There's hope for her yet.

"Not that I was questioning its use. Although I suppose I was in one fashion or another," she admits. She's just not selfish enough to say she doesn't understand how this kind of knowledge will benefit her. That's a rather vain way to put it, and wisely she keeps it to herself. "I could see it being very useful in places like this, but not in places with people who are archaic."

There. That's a nicer way for her to put it.

Hm. Here he thought he'd put the benefits in "archaic" terms well enough...

"If that's not enough of a selling point, a few 'archaic' cultures simply enjoyed math for its own sake. To them it wasn't a chore, it was a puzzle, and they were usually the ones who made the greatest leaps in science and technology."

I am a princess, not a scholar.

How she manages to keep her thoughts of that to herself is unknown, but her fairly blank expression may make that obvious in its own way. Or maybe he'll overlook it.

"You said before a lord had been responsible for studies of the sky and its colour changes. Lord Rayleigh, if I recall correctly." After a moment, she nods, deciding that perhaps she should not be so quick to put it aside. "He must have enjoyed these said puzzles as you so aptly put it. But I doubt he dislikes numbers as much as I do in this moment."

"Mathematics is something you have to train to get good at, Eirika." With her knowledge of swordplay, she should be familiar with the analogy. "After a while, the strategies come naturally. If I could give you perfect understanding of it without practice, I would... but I don't think anyone can do that."

It's... a good point, unfortunately. Well, no. Not so much unfortunate. Point is Gordon's making a valid point. She nods slowly as she listens, understanding the vague comparison. She's still not proficient with a blade either, but to be fair when she first picked up her rapier, she really wasn't any good at it.

And she's doing better with math than she was when he first began tutoring her. "I understand. Patience and practise, right? Even through frustration." She smiles to him graciously.

"Exactly."

He isn't sure if he's answered her question, but he seems to have encouraged her well enough. "Now then, let's try another one."

He scrawls a simple one on the board.

"What would X have to be that would make the whole thing equal zero?"

Try as she might, Eirika can't resist a sigh. It's almost incredulous. Almost. She eyes the equation he gives her, even knows it's simple algebra in comparison to what he could give. And eventually, she will have to understand the concept of harder equations.

Perhaps she'll be able to use this kind of information for something in Magvel.

"Uh..." Her head inclines to write some of her notes neatly onto her notebook before she looks back at the board. "Well... if it equals zero... 'X' would need to be... uhm. Negative... two?"

Why did negative numbers even exist, again? Math is still dumb.

It's vague curiosity and interest that lead - and leave - Ziio at the doorway to Gordon's classroom. Chances are that she was on her way to her own office for any number of things she needs to attend to and discovering the lair of the mysterious scientist has demanded she acquire a second impression of him.

Arms over her chest and plain garb that disregards Smash Academy's request for faculty in uniform, she leans onto the door frame somewhat casually, seemingly content to listen. At least for a few moments, or minutes, or until she decides she can no longer stomach listening to kids drone on in what will likely be a foreign language.

Well, it looked like someone was coming to finally talk to you. The young man ~~not your son~~ who was helping Gordon the whole time and trying to be a busy bee was doing the rounds he was asked to do. He had a notebook of equations he seemed (which he actually understood more of it than you might think). He turned to look at the mystery lady.

He decided to take it upon himself to at least politely address guests before seeing if his sort-of-boss needed him.

"Ma'am? You need somethin'?"

She cocked an eyebrow when Mac approached her. She'd seen him before, of course, but it hadn't really registered he'd go talk to her. After all, she wasn't a student and she imagined she didn't look like student material either. Not in a uniform, after all, and not carrying herself the way she saw students do.

"No," was her initial, succinct reply. Then thinking it was too abrupt for him, she tried to reform herself a little. He was just a young man, after all. A boy, Ziio would have said. "I am only observing. Unless that is you telling me to leave."

...And that was when he noticed it was actually the new guidance counselor...who's office he never really visited yet. Which was weird for him since he tended to love to use those kinds of services because of his seriousness about his own school life. The abruptness when over his head, his smile never really left.

He shook his head.

"No no no! Not at all, ma'am. I'm, uh, sorta Mr. Freeman's assistant here I guess. So I was just wonderin' if you need somethin' that's all...Ain't ya kinda new here too? I coulda swore I saw ya hangin' around one of the offices. You're the new guidance counselor, right?"

Gordon's assistant. Mac didn't look very scientific to her, but she knew well enough that there was always more to someone than what was initially shown. She nodded when she heard him. Ziio thought about further explaining herself, but to be fair, she'd already told him why she was there.

Instead, she nodded to his question. "Yes. The guidance counselor with the office, if you need to speak with me." Consult, in other words. Although she was still trying to understand what she was supposed to be doing. Guiding students really wasn't the same as guiding her people. Or claiming to.

Gordon's in sneakers and a t-shirt under that labcoat. Clearly she wasn't the only one who canned the dress code email as soon as he received it.

"Newton was of the notion that light was made of particles too small and fine for the eye to see. Christiaan Huygens, on the other had, said that light was made up of waves. Both had experimental PROOF that theirs was the correct theory. So, who was actually right?"

The natural pause in speech takes a microsecond longer when he notices her in the back, and gives the briefest of smiles. Then--

"They both were. Several hundred years later we found out that the two theories, though seemingly different and conflicting, are both valid ways to look at light. Lesson to take away from this is that different people can have different perspectives that are both pieces of a much bigger picture."

She's right. Everything he says is mostly foreign to her. And she's the one who speaks the additional language. But she's attentive and does consider what he has to say, even if she doesn't entirely get it. What she can do is make connections and analogies with his words. Especially regarding differences in perspectives and how they can lead to the same conclusion.

Something akin to the Brotherhood and the Templars.

Ziio doesn't miss his smile and she gives a very light one in return. And she chooses to stick around for a bit longer. If only to distract him.

She IS distracting, to be sure.

"It took a French nobleman by the name of DeBroglie to discover that in fact EVERY particle has a wavelength. The more massive they are, the longer the wavelength is. It isn't just light that has this duality but everything."

Still talking, but he can't help but spare the occasional glance to the wildflower in the back.

Her eyebrows furrow as she listens. Considering she knows nothing of science, aside from whatever Haytham might have told her - likely next to nothing - Ziio finds most of Gordon's speech unsurprisingly odd. Eccentric. Science and religion can't really agree and Ziio does suppose she'd believe in gods before theories and hypotheticals.

Sparing a glance for his class, she eyes his various students with some interest, as if committing them to memory. Just in the event they come to her later for assistance, which she's not completely unexpecting.

Looking back to the professor, her head tilts patiently. Okay. She's decided she can wait until he's done giving his instructional lecture. Or she'll duck out sooner, depending on if she's feeling compassionate or not. Maybe Gordon just needed a brief taste of the wilderness.

Fortunately she'd stopped in near the end of the session in the first place. The questions die down and he slaps the folder full of notes closed.

"...All right, that's it for today. Be sure to do those problems I assigned each one of you, aaaaaand I'll see you guys on Wednesday."

Did he cut the class short just to speak to her? Maybe, maybe not. In any case, he makes a beeline to her after his students start to file out.

"Hello, Ziio."

She steps aside to let his students leave. She's hardly in a desire to hold any of them up. Left with the professor himself, she regards him with the same calm composure she's met any situation. As if nothing happened, or perhaps it's just not her style to draw attention onto it.

"Kaniehtí:io," she clarifies for him. Maybe one day he'll get it. Looking from him to his classroom, she gives a slow nod. "The tamed Gordon Freeman in his natural habitat."

Then her eyes find their way back onto his face. "Hello."

"Kanie-tí--io. Right." Well... it probably isn't the worst mangling of her name she's heard, but it's far from a perfect pronunciation. "And I resent that. I may be in my natural habitat, but I don't tame so easily."

"I was not insulting you."

Her posture straightens and she folds her arms over her chest as she eyes him. "Your students were very attentive. You must be good at what you do." A pause and then she continues, "I just came to observe. Not my intent to interrupt."

"I know you weren't. I was only joking. And the students themselves are the secret to my success here. I've never seen so many kids want to actually learn. And I don't think anything you could possibly do could be an interruption, especially since class is over now."

Although the tone suggests that even during the class, she couldn't be unwelcome.

She nods slowly. He sounds the way any professor probably should. Children are the future and all of that, which she'd agree with.

As he continues, she regards him somewhat curiously. What does he really think of her now? She can't quite say, but he certainly doesn't seem to dislike seeing her.

"With your class no longer occupying you, what will you do now?" she asks him curiously, as she lifts her eyebrows.

"Probably go back to the lab, run through some numbers..."

By which he means "program an elaborate code sequence for the computer to run through for hours while he sits there and tries to balance a pencil on his nose."

"And where are you headed now?"

Still a foreign language. Running through numbers. Sounds fancy. But Ziio supposes most things next to her are rather... 'fancy.' If that's the word she wants to use for it.

Looking aside from him, her hands find her hips in thought. "Original intent was to sit in the room they refer to as my office. Further understand what they need of me." She's still questioning the concept of guiding students. "The routine has become..."

She thinks. "Monotonous."

Edited 2013-08-07 00:17 (UTC)

Science was a word that would often bring up bad connotations in Chell's mind. Not that she herself was bad at science, but the last eight thousand times she had heard the word were in less than ideal circumstances. But with the death of GLaDOS, with the relative dearth of Wheatley in Chell's life, it was okay to see science in a positive light again.

Especially if Gordon was teaching it. Gordon was a nice man, someone whom Chell would trust if she had to. So far he hadn't given too many indications of being of a villainous sort, but one could never know.

Even so, she wanted to brush up on it. After all, she was technically a university student here, was she not? It had been ages since she was last in school before coming here, so part of her felt that she needed to catch up. At least on the stuff that mattered. And maybe with a better grasp of science, she would be better off.

So there she sat in the room, quiet as usual but still observing and listening.

"So... any questions?"

His eyes scan the cluster of students, and very briefly settle on Chell before:

"I'll, uh, accept them in written form as well."

Chell had listened to the others' questions, taking notes here and there as she tried to get a grasp on the sciences. Sometimes she felt inferior - somewhat stupid as she learned. Having missed so many years of schooling - a good chunk of middle school, all of high school... and even then, her memories of her childhood were still so fuzzy - she felt like it would be better to just stay silent. Don't show any weaknesses of not knowing what was going on.

But at least she was quick to learn the math. Logic was a strong point with her, and math was very logical. Very set in its ways. Still, she had a lot to learn. Maybe she had grasped a good deal of algebra this year, but she had a ways to go.

So when Gordon looked at her and seemed to encourage asking a question, Chell did write something down on a scrap of notebook paper.

how to solve equations w/ both x and y?

"--Remember, in taking the square of both a negative or a positive, you lose any negative sign that was there before." He finishes his previous topic, and gathers the paper from the table, glancing at it.

"'...How do we solve equations in both x and y?'" He recites for the benefit of the class, then looks up. "All right. This has multiple facets to it, and I'll start from the top. A single equation in both x and y has infinite solutions, because for every value of x there is a y that makes it true. In order to find a definite, single solution you actually need a system of TWO equations, and I'll show you how to do that right now."

x+2y=5, 2x-3y=3... he shows how to juggle the numbers, kicks up a lot of chalk dust with all the scribbles, finds the answer... and then shows them as a pair of lines intersecting at a single point that is exactly the value he was looking for--oh hey, that's a LOT easier.

"In the end, that's all it is. A meeting point of two lines. Doesn't seem quite so perplexing now, does it?"

Chell scribbled down the notes as Gordon explained and put the simple equation on the board. Isolating the variables. Right, that wasn't so hard. Whenever she wasn't writing it down, her large dark eyes were intensely focused on Gordon and his chalkboard, soaking up all the information he had to offer.

And when he was done, she gave a small nod, showing she understood.

He always loved watching those eyes take in all that information, watching her completely focused on a puzzle... and in particular a puzzle he'd given her. He nods back, smiling a little.

"If you were solving in x, y and z, you'd need three equations, and so on. You can also represent this in the form of a matrix... but that's a lecture for another afternoon."

It's been some odd months since Chihiro had attended Gordon's class, he enjoyed class regardless feeling rather small in comparison. When he heard that there were Summer classes and when he had heard there were an optional class for summer, why not? It wouldn't be that bad to brush up a few pointers that he might have forgotten during his period of absence.

Not entirely out of meekness however Chihiro did not immediately enter, instead choosing to peek in a bit. He somewhat wondered if Gordon still remember him, time works differently in Smash and the brunet himself had been kinda jumbled- albeit with unrelated things, but it still somewhat applies.

He remembers Chihiro, albeit dimly. That doesn't stop him from beckoning him into the classroom, however.

"Come on in, it's an open session." He interjects into what he was talking about. "As I was saying, when a system is oscillating there's always a driving, or resonant, frequency that will keep the system going or exascerbate it. Making a pendulum swing faster and wider, for instance."

That had tugged a smile a bit, the smaller brunet had muttered a thank you before taking the closest seat available. That was good at least, Gordon seem to recall him a bit.

Still though, catching up after what it seems at least two months of absences, jumping into class seems to be rather confusing. Hopefully, the confusion wouldn't show on his face.

It had been a while since Cyrus had gotten to discuss matters of science with anybody, and books, even the most recent ones, only went so far. As much as he despised most people, it was a necessary deed to interact with others.

So when he heard about this semi-class, he quickly decided to attend.

He was there promptly at the opening time, ready to enter into hopefully high-level discourse with the greatest brains on campus.

...Of course, he also knew that he was likely to be severely disappointed.

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Pre-semester Math & Science 'Stravaganza [Open!]

In this thread, Eirika hates math. And science. But mostly math.

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Lurker Bee is Lurking

hi lady lady lady hi

wow why are you here

i was always here you just didn't know

creeper mccreeperson

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