The brain is so fascinating…

I was struck by a recent “heart” post from Corinne — probably in November — and seemed to recall that my college calculus book had an analytic expression that graphs as a heart shape. So I went to my bookshelf, but did not see my college textbook. I found the blue book in the photo, pulled it out and looked up cycloid in the index.

While a cycloid is the top part of a heart shape, what I found in the blue textbook didn't “look” right. I haven’t referenced my college calculus book very often in the last three or more decades, but I just didn’t feel mentally “comfortable” looking in the “other” textbook I had picked up somewhere over the years. So where is my college calculus book?? Surely I didn’t get rid of it. It didn’t take long before I found my textbook and everything looked right.

And that’s the point of this post. The memories we construct are often more detailed than we think. Reading a book, we sometimes have to go back and remind ourselves about something we’ve already read but didn’t necessarily think it was going to be important. We have a sense that it was on a left-hand page, or it was at the bottom of a page, or the page had a coffee splatter on it. As the title of the post says, the brain is so fascinating.

Note. I'm sure many of you were going to correct me, but “cycloid” was the wrong term to search. A heart-shaped curve is called a cardioid. Isn't that clever? And for Corinne and others, you’re welcome to focus on the graphs here: heart curves.

And by the way, my textbook? The tan one above: $11.95 (used) in fall 1974.

Looking back
1 year ago: No post
2 years ago: No post
3 years ago: “More with displays…”
4 years ago: “Painting done. Carpeting next.”
5 years ago: “Ginkgo biloba (seedling)”
6 years ago: “Lipstick plant”
7 years ago: “Identity in flux…”
8 years ago: “Wall shadows”
9 years ago: “Bleak?”

[ PXL_20201120_203933434.PORTRAIT-01.COVER_e065cwS105x70tm :: cell phone ]

[Thom Mitchell]

@cocobella One of your posts sent me on this quest and another fascination with “memory”—

[Mags]

I always envied the folks with the brains for math like this.

[Kerri Michaels]

No thank you...been there done that

[Kathryn]

OMG. I think we had the same books laying around here. I have no idea where they are now. I know I recognize the Thomas, for sure.

[GaryW]

I'm impressed that you still have books from college! Mine are all gone!

[Thom Mitchell]

@marlboromaam I have always been appreciative of the gift and all the teachers who nurtured it in me.

[Thom Mitchell]

@houser934 4th/e, ©1968, $11.95 used in fall 1974. :)
The book I got rid of that I have occasionally really, really wished I'd kept was Halliday and Resnick's physics text… But it was a beast; probably 2½–3" thick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_Physics

[Thom Mitchell]

@thewatersphotos My day job for 30+ years was applied mathematician/economist. Calculus and optimization is the lifeblood of what I did! Do I still have my history, sociology, and political science books? ;)

[Esther Rosenberg]

My son is going the way of that math stuff. ( doing calculous now in high school) He did NOT got that from me....I have a brain freeze just looking at those books.

[Thom Mitchell]

@dutchothotmailcom Left-brain/right-brain? One of my favorite moments was 20ish years ago with my older daughter. She always did well in her math classes, even if she didn’t enjoy it. One day she said to me, “I’m not good at math.” I heard that from the right perspective (for a change), paused, and said in reply, “You *are* good at math; you just don’t like it. There’s a difference.” I wish teachers and students *everywhere* would recognize that distinction. It’s very discouraging to me that primary and secondary teachers whose own distaste for math rubs off on their students forever preventing some gifted students from enjoying the subject and possibly pursuing a vocation or career in a STEM field. [Steps down off soapbox]