Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Mr T learns calculus from Mr Rot

A fever cannot be "always 104 and rising." Either it hits 105 or it stops rising. Bacevich's command of arithmetic is as poor as his command of history. Well, Herr Rotter, first of all, this ain't about arithmetic, but more like, calculus. And second, how about the function f(t)=105-1/t? Eh, eh?

REGURGE: And Homer nods: It is possible for a fever to be "104 and rising," if it is approaching 105 (or 104.5, or 104.05, or whatever is the lowest point one would round up to the next interval) asymptotically. We regret the error.

I would have added the words "Are you happy now, Dr Wrongsky?"

3 comments:

Mr roT said...

Tecs, have you been reading "Counterexamples in Analysis" again?

You're a \CD guy, remember? Remember the Wrongskian Episode?

By the way, that sounds like a aRobert Ludlum book.

Either way, drop the \lesssim pretense. I can see right through it.

Tecumseh said...

Twisting slowly, slowly in the wind, are we, Mr roT? Face it, I caught you with the pants down on this one. Pay up!

Tecumseh said...

Homer nods: You're catching up, Herr Rot, you're catching up. Next thing you know, you'll get to the Chain Rule. Jeez.