One Smart Dude
Apr. 8th, 2006 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowThis is what smart looks like.
Smart Dude: "Blah blah blah."
Me: "Uhhh. Why?"
SD: "It's obvious!"
Me: "Uhhh. Why?"
SD: "Blah blah blah."
Me: :slaps forehead: "Oh."
As I mentioned a while back, I'm reading a thick book entitled Analytic Theory of Polynomials. My most immediate goal, in reading it, was to see the proofs of two theorems, one by someone named Lucas, the other by Karl Friedrich Gauss. (I'd seen the statements of the theorems, and they bore a certain family resemblance to a theorem I'd discovered; I'm hoping for insight.) Now, Lucas' theorem looked reasonable to me; I couldn't see how to prove it, but it made sense. Gauss' theorem... The problem is to find the zeroes of the derivative of a polynomial. Gauss says, "Set up some force fields, thus and so. The zeroes you're looking for are the places where the force fields cancel out."
The hell?
Thursday morning, I finally reached those two theorems. The proof of Lucas' theorem took a couple of paragraphs, using techniques that had been developed earlier in the book. The proof of Gauss' theorem consisted of four sentences and one equation. It was obvious.
Gauss was a demigod.
Smart Dude: "Blah blah blah."
Me: "Uhhh. Why?"
SD: "It's obvious!"
Me: "Uhhh. Why?"
SD: "Blah blah blah."
Me: :slaps forehead: "Oh."
As I mentioned a while back, I'm reading a thick book entitled Analytic Theory of Polynomials. My most immediate goal, in reading it, was to see the proofs of two theorems, one by someone named Lucas, the other by Karl Friedrich Gauss. (I'd seen the statements of the theorems, and they bore a certain family resemblance to a theorem I'd discovered; I'm hoping for insight.) Now, Lucas' theorem looked reasonable to me; I couldn't see how to prove it, but it made sense. Gauss' theorem... The problem is to find the zeroes of the derivative of a polynomial. Gauss says, "Set up some force fields, thus and so. The zeroes you're looking for are the places where the force fields cancel out."
The hell?
Thursday morning, I finally reached those two theorems. The proof of Lucas' theorem took a couple of paragraphs, using techniques that had been developed earlier in the book. The proof of Gauss' theorem consisted of four sentences and one equation. It was obvious.
Gauss was a demigod.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-13 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-14 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-14 02:03 am (UTC)