The Wisdom of Prof. Hartley Rogers, Jr.
as gathered by an avid student over his fall '95 18.02 lectures at MIT
- 9/15 14:23
"Usually the physicists don't get it quite right."
- 9/15 14:49
"That was a horrible misconception...and your misconception is even more horrible."
- 9/19 13:09
"If you don't know your instructor's name at this point, I suggest you find it out."
- 9/21 13:48
On test taking:
"First of all, go to the correct room."
- 9/26 13:27
"We're sticking to Cartesian coordinates for the moment.
And it'll be a long moment, don't worry."
- 9/28 13:31
"This is a chapter that can be extremely difficult, but if you see how simple it is,
it can be extremely easy."
- 9/29 13:32
On elementary functions:
"They're extremely well-behaved...just like you."
- 10/3 13:34
"I'm putting you at a great competitive advantage."
- 10/3 13:48
"What's incorrect is your wrong idea...
Maybe you don't have the wrong idea.
Maybe I'm fighting a strong person."
- 10/5 13:42
"All my children are brilliant.
Well, that's true if I don't have any children...
It's also true that they're all dumb."
- 10/6 13:29
"This handkerchief is ready for my tears."
- 10/6 13:36
"Logic: a frightening word to many people in this room."
- 10/6 13:54
"We went tragically through all this earlier in the hour."
- 10/12 13:39
On additivity:
"That law is NOT profound."
- 10/13 14:16
"I'll speak like this...
but I won't sing."
- 10/20 14:36
"Physicists rather pervert this.
They just try to be maximally confusing.
Of course, they say the same thing about mathematicians."
- 10/20 14:49
"You know how some people eat ice cream:
they lick and lick...
Take a big bite out of it!"
- 10/20 14:54
"Then we can go off to our weekend pleasures.
If we have any.
I don't."
- 10/24 13:46
"Everything says, 'Change my variables!'"
- 10/27 14:51
"You're always kind of happy when doing a vector line integral,
and kind of suspicious when doing a scalar."
- 11/14 13:27
"Proofs that follow this will be in Hartley informal style."
- 11/17 14:51
On 'del' notation:
"This is seductive and it is dangerous.
Be careful."
- 11/21 13:55
On wires in an otherwise irrotational field:
"Well, I can imagine a black nylon speedo bathing suit
and have these wires wear it."
- 11/28 13:40
On moments of epiphany:
"Like the nose of a camel under the edge of a tent..."
- 12/1 14:49
On Beta operations:
"I'm tempted to go on emoting about this."
- 12/7 13:11
"It's obvious if you see it.
It's not so obvious if you don't."
- 12/8 14:20
"You're watching the total decay of my personality up here."
- 12/8 14:23
"I don't want you loose on the street claiming that you've taken this course!"
- 12/8 14:28
"I don't mean to be too sarcastic-it's not my nature."
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