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stoutfellowThe promised snow did not begin falling until about 1:00 this afternoon - we had rain instead - and current predictions are that there will be less of it, but it will be messier. Also, my sore throat dissipated, so I went ahead to work. A good thing; our study group had an interesting and, I hope, productive meeting.
W was a little bit late, due to a previous engagement. While we waited, L, the student who's working with us, showed us a ball-and-stick model of a polyhedron he'd stumbled upon. It looked quite interesting; T and I spent some time admiring it. When W arrived, he said (something like) "Cool. Is it real?" We spent the next half-hour discussing what he meant by that, and then whether the answer was yes or no. (We came to no firm conclusion; direct computations will be required.)
Next, I showed them some of the ideas I'd been working with; one of L's ideas turned out to be fruitful when applied to the problem I've been investigating. It was decided that L should take on the task of seeing where else the idea could be used. (It was his idea, originally, and one of the obvious places to check is a situation he knows more about than any of the rest of us do.) I spent a little time complaining about a roadblock I'd run into. I want an algorithm that will perform a certain task, and all my attempts to date have failed. I mumbled something about a possible approach; W offered a suggestion on how to simplify that approach. I rejected it, initially, but he persuaded me that it's the right way to go. I look forward to trying it out. (I may do some computations by hand over the weekend, to clarify how to turn the idea into an algorithm.)
All in all, a productive day.
(At one point, W objected to a bit of terminology I'd been using. I explained why I was using it; he shook his head. "I'm not used to giving that word that meaning." I shrugged: "Sorry; I was infected with category theory at an early age." "I'm so sorry to hear that.")
W was a little bit late, due to a previous engagement. While we waited, L, the student who's working with us, showed us a ball-and-stick model of a polyhedron he'd stumbled upon. It looked quite interesting; T and I spent some time admiring it. When W arrived, he said (something like) "Cool. Is it real?" We spent the next half-hour discussing what he meant by that, and then whether the answer was yes or no. (We came to no firm conclusion; direct computations will be required.)
Next, I showed them some of the ideas I'd been working with; one of L's ideas turned out to be fruitful when applied to the problem I've been investigating. It was decided that L should take on the task of seeing where else the idea could be used. (It was his idea, originally, and one of the obvious places to check is a situation he knows more about than any of the rest of us do.) I spent a little time complaining about a roadblock I'd run into. I want an algorithm that will perform a certain task, and all my attempts to date have failed. I mumbled something about a possible approach; W offered a suggestion on how to simplify that approach. I rejected it, initially, but he persuaded me that it's the right way to go. I look forward to trying it out. (I may do some computations by hand over the weekend, to clarify how to turn the idea into an algorithm.)
All in all, a productive day.
(At one point, W objected to a bit of terminology I'd been using. I explained why I was using it; he shook his head. "I'm not used to giving that word that meaning." I shrugged: "Sorry; I was infected with category theory at an early age." "I'm so sorry to hear that.")
