Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Kiss Today Goodbye

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

If I knew a mathematical express for luck, I'd wish it for you.

After a number of years, real world changes are in the future, but I'm hoping this comic remains the same.
Or improves at a constant rate of growth. Or something like that.




Monday, June 25, 2012

Breakthrough

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

And you know that this is the way it would go down.



Friday, June 22, 2012

Abraham Lincoln: Mathematician -- Book Two

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

There is a subset of set P, the set of people, which is always a subset of set F, the set of fooled people.
There are times when the set P and set F are equivalent.

EDIT:It's Friday evening, so this is still today's strip. I updated the chart. It didn't seem right to me last night, and I tweaked it. I just didn't tweak it correctly. Oopsie. Lincoln must've been better at this than I am.




Wednesday, June 20, 2012

What's Wrong, Son?

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

The biggest lie here would be if I told you that I knew everything going on in this comic.

Okay, it's like this: a month or two ago, I follow a link to an article on lie algebra, so I have a punchline, but I need the setup. Then I see the bit about SO(n). Perfect. If I can make this a Father-Son joke, I have myself a Fathers Day strip.

Except that last week, I research it again, and I can't find the article. Seriously. Google sent me to a wiki page, which, apparently, has been updated in the meanwhile, and the reference isn't there. Moreover, to be honest here, I haven't a clue where or if I actually saw a reference to "dA". What is that? Integration? Matrix algebra? Fevered imagination yearning to finish the joke? No clue.

But I do know one thing.

I know the correct pronounciation of "lie", so you don't need to point that out.




Tuesday, June 19, 2012

This and That ...

We got the results of our students' Algebra Regents exams. Not as good as we'd like or hoped for, but isn't that always the case? A few surprises: people passing whom I wouldn't have expected going in (happy surprise), and a couple that I'd thought would sail comfortably through hit some rough waters (sad surprise). There's always August. And tutoring before then.

Consolation prize: A few of the more advanced students took the test again to improve their grades as they head toward college. Glad that they came back and did well. That made the teachers and the A.P. happy.

Tangent: Speaking of the A.P., some of you might be wondering "Why in Dante's Nine-Point Circle in the A. P. in the End-of-Year Review comic blue? "

If you're new (or if you forgot), that goes back to this comic strip about our Star Teachers.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Happy Fathers Day 2012

This is my first Fathers Day without my father. I'm just going to leave a link to one of my favorite comics:

Generations X+1, X and X-1

Happy Fathers Day to everyone.

Friday, June 15, 2012

End-of-Year Review

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

To all the wonderful and dedicated Assistant Principals out there: please note that it's the teacher who is the target of the joke here, and not the hard-working ensurer of quality instruction for the entire department. Good job, you!

EDIT: I was relating this joke to a coworker, who immediately made a comment about "dark sarcasm in the classroom".
Dang! Should've seen that one. If nothing else, that should have been the 'alt' text.



Thursday, June 14, 2012

Professional Development

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

I'm not sure why that's even a boast.
First, you'd have to assume that you have more than twice my knowledge of the subject.
Second, you'd have to assume that I assume that you have more than twice my knowledge of the subject.

I'm not likely to make that assumption.
And another thing ....
... excuse me, my boss wants a word with me ...




Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Dante's Nine-Point Circle

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Taking Infernal Geometry to new depths.





UPDATE: If you came here from the reddit link, don't forget to upvote!

And if you didn't, consider going there anyway and upvoting!!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Delays ... Delays ... .... .... .... .... Delays ...

Sigh. Another delay. I'm actually loaded with ideas for at least a half dozen comics, but each one seems to take me 1-2 hours to complete lately, and that's before preparing the files for uploaded. I decided that I was definitely putting something up tonight and went for the "quickest, easiest" of the idea's jotted. Forty-five minutes later, I'm still working on the basics and trying to get it "just right".

I can't win. I will finish one of these tomorrow to post on Wednesday. Either the "quickie" or the one I had been planning for Monday.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Translating Ray Bradbury

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Something (x, why?) This Way Comes
and it's illustrated, man.



Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Final Effort

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Based on empirical data.

On a day like today, they should be making that one big push toward the final exam.
Twenty old assignments won't help much if your test average is below 40%.
Not cutting June classes and passing the final exam will be a lot more for you.



Friday, June 01, 2012

Two More Graphs of Reality

In case anyone missed the comments on yesterday's comic, Lance Friedman from The Math Plane posted a link to a couple of graphs which related height vs time when skiing along with a second that mapped happiness level throughout your snowy excursion.

Take a look here.

Show them to your Algebra students and have them right the story, explaining what's going on in the graph.