Things Math Professors Say

"The proof is trivial." (Oh, cool. Guess I’m just an idiot then.)

"Left as an exercise." (Translation: You’ll never solve this in a million years.)

"It’s obvious, really." (Sure, if you’re a demigod.)

"By inspection." (Stares harder at problem… still nothing.)

"For small values of epsilon." (How small? Subatomic? Microscopic? Vibes?)

"WLOG (Without Loss of Generality)." (Oh, we’re just assuming it doesn’t matter now? Alright.)

"Details omitted." (Because apparently, you don’t need to understand it.)

"By the usual argument." (Which you somehow don’t know because you weren’t born in 1702.)

"Assume the rest holds." (That’s some impressive optimism right there.)

"The usual abuse of notation." (Why does this feel like an emotional wound?)

"Almost surely correct." (But also possibly wrong? Cool, thanks for the clarity.)

"A non-rigorous approach." (I thought math was supposed to be precise?!)

"Assume it’s obvious." (Buddy, NOTHING about this is obvious.)

"The reader may verify." (No, the reader may CRY.)

"To the interested reader." (Guess I’m not interested enough, huh?)

"Well-behaved functions only." (We’re function-shaming now?)

"Obvious to the trained eye." (Guess I’ll never make it out of amateur league.)

"A trivial case analysis." (Trivial to WHO??)

"Integrate by parts, twice." (Bold of you to assume I got it the first time.)

"As you can clearly see." (Oh, I clearly see my FAILURE, alright.)

"It works in practice too." (Unlike me, who barely works at all.)

"Assume a spherical cow." (Are we doing math or abstract sculpture?)

"A standard result." (Not in my standards, pal.)

"We skip the tedious algebra." (No, no, please—I wanted to suffer MORE.)

"Assume non-zero solutions exist." (Okay, now we’re just assuming life works out.)

"The usual topology." (Bro, I don’t even know the unusual topology.)

"Finitely many cases left." (Just kidding, there’s 72.)

"By virtue of symmetry." (Virtue? I have none left.)

"Don’t worry about the constant." (The constant is probably my GPA dropping.)

"Assume continuity." (I’m assuming my brain is breaking.)

"Smooth functions only." (Guess I’ll leave, I’m clearly not smooth enough.)

"The simplest non-trivial case." (Simplest? NON-TRIVIAL? Pick a side!)

"Epsilon goes to zero." (Epsilon isn’t the only one losing it.)

"And the rest follows." (Where? Straight to my breakdown?)

More Posts from Dynmaxblaze and Others

dynmaxblaze

9 months ago

born to go to beautiful libraries and study, forced to hustle in my room <3

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dynmaxblaze

5 months ago

I've been pulled into watching the Gotham Chess recaps of the International Chess Championship and here are my thoughts:

This would make a great pro wrestling story

(hearing him actually recap a chess strategy) oh my god i never want to be good at chess

BASELESS ACCUSATION CHEATING GUY?????

ANAL BEADS CHEATING GUY???????????

Ding nooooooo you can do it I believe in you (I'm kinda cheering for both of them but I'm tickled by the concept of "incumbent champ who is somehow the neurotic underdog")

I REALLY never want to be good at chess

probably the sickos on Ao3 have written rpf about this (they have)

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dynmaxblaze

10 months ago

when you are a child, you solve equations. we grown-ups have to solve inequalities.

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dynmaxblaze

4 months ago

You took this photo? I've loved it for a long time!

when people are like “he’s not even attractive you could find a guy that looks like him at any gas station” i’m like….. well you see there’s beauty everywhere actually

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dynmaxblaze

10 months ago

theyre selling WHAT on ebay now

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dynmaxblaze

5 months ago

Also Griebach, known for the Griebach Normal Form!

Discover that a name you’ve been hearing for years belongs to a woman! (shout out Phyllis Nicolson of Crank-Nicolson method fame)

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dynmaxblaze

6 months ago

Euclidean Geometry in Mathematical Olympiads

Geometric proofs… might anyone have a good resource for learning them more formally? I need them for a project I’ve recently begun, and hope to find a guide stronger than those reserved for high school geometry courses haha.

Specifically, i’m looking to understand lines, line intersections, things of that type, in a deeper way.

Thank you! :)

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dynmaxblaze

10 months ago

A lot of people absolutely fail to distinguish between 'I hate this because I was taught this badly' and 'I hate this because this thing is inherently bad', and I hate it.

you know I absolutely agree with the fact that the education system is fucked and traumatises students. I absolutely agree with the fact classes like english and maths and history can be piss boring and teach you nothing of worth and could be a trigger depending on how hellish of a teacher you were given.

Hell, the only reason I love maths is because I primarily engaged with it outside of class and found it fun on my own terms. I'm still bitter towards my history teachers for having clear favourites and not engaging half the class.

but like. if you're railing against the *subjects* themselves, refusing to learn any of the basics as an adult, and bringing up how much you hate them at every opportunity? At some point that becomes a problem you have to deal with yourself.

and if you don't, you're going to be the reason this happens again for the next generation.

Tags

education math mathblr

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dynmaxblaze

5 months ago

This exactly. It feels as if the brains of my friends flow smoothly towards the shore of certainty through the choppy seas of truth- meanwhile I'm taking a raft.

there's a very specific feeling that makes it difficult to study math in an academic environment when all students around you seem like they're exponentially more intuitive than you in this subject

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dynmaxblaze

10 months ago