Prof. Hartley Rogers, Jr. Quotes
18.022 Fall 2001
(Shamelessly stolen from Stepehen Lee here.)
Oct 25: Now this is a dot! This is the dot of the dot product!
Nov 6: This domain maps to a sort of floppy pancake!
Nov 6: This formula is goodie goodie!
Nov 6: This can get a little spooky! It's almost supernatural! What is
the content we're measuring??
Nov 6: Circulation...it's like we're in the magazine business!
Nov 8: This integral is beseeching me to use what? ... Polar
coordinates!
Nov 8: [Hartley stops class and puts on an All Zete (Zeta Psi) shirt]
At one point in my ill-conceived career, I was a member of a chapter
of this fraternity. So I am easily persuaded to put this shirt on.
Nov 8: The rotational derivative is a measure of the shwirliness at
a point.
Nov 9: Okay, that's my sermon for today. Now let's do some examples!
Nov 9: Believe it or not, in my adventurous career, I actually saw
someone fall into a vortex! I saw this in 1989 in the Zambezi River
right before the Victoria Falls. [Hartley stops class to tell story
about female German tourists causing a raft to capsize, causing them
to fall into a vortex... Hartley then says how he met the most famous
man in Africa--Clint Eastwood--after he got off his raft.]
Nov 13: Aaaaaaaaaa...do you find this confusing? 'Cause I do!
Nov 13: I want to define a measure on this floppy pancake of a region,
but I can only do it if the pancake is directed!
Nov 16: What does this mean? Someone shout out the answer! [A student
says: "The integrals are the same."] The integrals are the same! Yes!
This is the level of thinking we are going to use in connection with
these theorems!
Nov 16: I left my handkerchief in my coat pocket. That's good because
I don't have to cry.
Nov 16: If you turn this surface upside-down, it would be a skirt!
Nov 16: We had a skirt before, but we haven't exhausted our wearing
apparel. What can we do with these curves? Short pants! [Hartley draws
surface to look like short pants] [Student:"Diaper!"] [Hartley jumps
back from picture, startled. Class erupts in laughter. Hartley is
overcome by the diaper.]
Nov 16: You could be right in close with a pair of panties, and
Stokes' theorem will still apply!
Nov 16: I've lost my mind!...almost.
Nov 16: I wouldn't memorize the formulas...I couldn't! Well, I haven't
tried. I always underestimate myself.
Nov 29: I apologize for my lateness. There was a large truck accident
that I was stuck behind.
Nov 29: Suppose we have an ordered triple: 5,...--well, I wrote down
2, so 2...
Nov 29: I won't take the time to prove them. Well, if I hadn't been
late, I would.
Nov 29: The plural of matrix m-a-t-r-i-x is matrices! M-a-t-r-i
[pause] c-e-s! You learned something today!
Nov 30: When did you first learn simultaneous equations? What grade?
[Studnet 1:"13th grade!"] 13th grade?! Come on! [Student 2:"3rd
grade!"] 3rd grade I'll buy, not 13th grade!
Nov 30: This reverberates...or resignates... [pause] Where did I
get that word?! I know, I got it from watching a George Bush campaign
speech in the state of Washington. He kept saying "resignates" when he
meant "resonates!"...Anyway...this resonates throughout mathematics.
Nov 30: All right. Enough dilly-dallying!
Dec 4: [Hartley stumbles while trying to explain row reduction] I
don't blame you for automatically thinking I'm going to be
wrong. ... I should be taking notes and you should be giving lecture.
Dec 4: Face east and bow down to worship this crucial theorem of
mathematics!
Dec 6: Vacation! That's what we've been having for the last four
lectures since we've been doing linear algebra. And it's eeeasy!
Dec 6: I'm trying to engrave the Lord's prayer on the head of a pin!
[Pause] Not enough room. [Class laughs] ...Thank you.
Dec 6: Meanwhile, there's been a great jumbling of garbage trucks over
here! Let's call it P for peculiar. [Pause] Wake up! You've got the
inverse over here!
Dec 7: Well, the term is almost over!...in case you hadn't heard.
Dec 11: These questions [on the final] are really pretty easy!
Dec 11: [Student: "Where is the final?"] [Pause]...What do you
mean...in my office?