Tag: math

New year updates

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New year’s day: seems like a good time for some updates.

man with facial hair and glasses wearing black jacket standing and smiling at camera with green trees in background
during a brief trip to ojai

To say I’ve been busy lately would be a dramatic understatement. Even aside from the pandemic and the general chaos it has created, 2021 has been a pretty crazy year for me. At this time 1 year ago, we were living in the Seattle area and our daughter hadn’t been born yet. Fast forward to today, and she is 11 months old, and we are living in Los Angeles (with another big cross country move to come in another few months).

During 2021 I can’t say I accomplished much in rocketry, but I did take several classes at local community colleges: a chemistry prep course; the full chemistry course with lab; a geology class about dinosaurs; and linear (matrix) algebra. In 2019, I took the three-part calculus series, and linear algebra was the first post-calculus math class I’ve ever taken. I’d like to eventually get an engineering degree and these are just math and science pre-requisites, but regardless of whether I ultimately get the degree, I just enjoy learning – and these are some tough classes that really force me to do some hard work and expand my mind.

Since arriving in Los Angeles about six months ago, we’ve also made an effort to get out and explore the local area – with the important caveats that this is taking place during a global pandemic and we have a baby. We’ve made it to San Diego, Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Big Bear Lake within a few hours’ drive of LA; several beaches, many hikes, and a few botanical gardens; and much more. Most recently we just visited the California Science Center, which has an awesome space exhibit and actually houses one of the (now retired) space shuttles. I’ll post more about this exhibit shortly!

Why I’m taking math classes

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This post requires a bit of explanation and backstory.

math on blackboard
glorious math

When I was much younger, I was pretty good at math, and I liked it. I’m talking about very basic math, like in elementary school and junior high. Basic arithmetic, pre-algebra and algebra. Starting in third grade, and every year from grades three through eight, I represented our school at the statewide junior “math olympics.” I was also always drawn to space and astronomy. As I got closer to finishing high school and was busy applying to colleges, I decided that I’d choose a school based on its engineering program.

When I first started undergrad, my intended major was aerospace engineering. For a variety of reasons, though, I struggled with the necessary math and science classes – calculus, chemistry, physics. And to make a very long story short, I ended up switching majors to political science, and went on to law school afterwards, getting both an JD and MBA. I’m also very interested in history, and politics, and law, and public policy, which is why this path appealed to me.

That’s a successful outcome, though, right? Well, it depends on your perspective.

I enjoy what I do; it’s interesting and it’s intellectually challenging and satisfying. But I finished law school a decade ago, and for undergrad it’s been even longer than that. I’ve always felt that I never got the formal basic education in math or science, and I certainly never completed the program in aerospace engineering.

To be honest, I’m not sure if I will ever get the engineering degree. I don’t know that I will ever become an engineer. I suppose I could go back to school full time, or I could continue to work and take classes part time. But either way, I’ve felt like this basic math and science knowledge is lacking, and I decided that I should take a few classes to help complete my education.

And so, I did.

I started taking evening classes last year, in January 2019, jumping back into things with calculus I at a local community college. And it turns out, I still like math.

I’ll follow this post with another soon, detailing my lurid experiences with derivatives and integrals – in case you were hoping for more juicy mathematics.