Cambridge Chat (previously New Cambridge Students Entry 2004)

Alaric

I had a good guest lecture today by Dr Joe Hurd, now of Oxford, but did his PhD here and lectured Logic and Proof in Larry's absence last year. What was great is that he took a break in the middle for some jokes and word play like some of the insurance claim quotes from: http://www.businessballs.com/insuranceclaims.htm

I particularly liked:
"The pedestrian ran for the pavement, but I got him."
"I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the road when I struck him."
"The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him."

Aren't humans great at communicating their meaning :rolleyes:

That's nuts. :biggrin:

Reply 10503

Camford

Well, if I love it, then I wouldn't mind.

Hahahaha - the naivety.

Ben

Reply 10504

Ben.S.

Hahahaha - the naivety.

Ben

Yep, that's why those people are good at what they do.

Reply 10505

its not THAT demanding to give 1 9am saturday lecture a week out of a whole 3 hours a week actual lecturing time which you only give for a certain number of weeks a year.

and i bet they get paid an awful lot more than most people who work on saturdyas.

Reply 10506

crana9

its not THAT demanding to give 1 9am saturday lecture a week out of a whole 3 hours a week actual lecturing time which you only give for a certain number of weeks a year.

and i bet they get paid an awful lot more than most people who work on saturdyas.

They get paid infinte times more than me for doing saturday lectures.

Reply 10507

crana9

its not THAT demanding to give 1 9am saturday lecture a week out of a whole 3 hours a week actual lecturing time which you only give for a certain number of weeks a year.

and i bet they get paid an awful lot more than most people who work on saturdyas.

They get paid the same as lecturers who don't work on Saturdays, pretty much. I hate going to Saturday lectures. They must feel even worse having to give them!

Ben

Reply 10508

Willa

right, i'm now stuck on bloody triple integrals!

To find the volume of a sphere (radius a) using triple integrals, must I do the following

integrate 1 with respect to x between limits +root(a^2-y^2-z^2) and -(same thing)
then integrate that with respect to y between limits root(a^2-z^2) and the negative of that
and then integrate THAT with respect to z between -a and a!?

it just seems very complex!

Reply 10509

Willa

right, i'm now stuck on bloody triple integrals!

To find the volume of a sphere (radius a) using triple integrals, must I do the following

integrate 1 with respect to x between limits +root(a^2-y^2-z^2) and -(same thing)
then integrate that with respect to y between limits root(a^2-z^2) and the negative of that
and then integrate THAT with respect to z between -a and a!?

it just seems very complex!

Spherical polar. Spherial polar.

Reply 10510

Ben.S.

They get paid the same as lecturers who don't work on Saturdays, pretty much. I hate going to Saturday lectures. They must feel even worse having to give them!

Ben

well yeah but its still relatively good pay, and its only one hour's work. they can prepare it etc whenevr they want. i really don't think it's that hard a life!

ps. at least it makes you get up :confused:

Reply 10511

Willa

right, i'm now stuck on bloody triple integrals!

To find the volume of a sphere (radius a) using triple integrals, must I do the following

integrate 1 with respect to x between limits +root(a^2-y^2-z^2) and -(same thing)
then integrate that with respect to y between limits root(a^2-z^2) and the negative of that
and then integrate THAT with respect to z between -a and a!?

it just seems very complex!

It is complex if you do it like that! Then you'll get taught how to do it in spherical polars. Which is very, very quick. Spherical polars; (r,a,b)

Int[0->2Pi],[0->Pi],[0->a] (r^2)sin(a)dr.da.db

= Int[0->2Pi],[0->Pi] ((a^3)/3)sin(a)da.db

= Int[0->2Pi], 2Pi((a^3)/3)db

= (4/3)Pi.(a^3)

Ben

Reply 10512

crana9

well yeah but its still relatively good pay, and its only one hour's work. they can prepare it etc whenevr they want. i really don't think it's that hard a life!

ps. at least it makes you get up :confused:

If it was that well paid, then there wouldn't be so many strikes! Generally, the majority of academics are NOT well paid! Given experience and qualifications etc.

Ben

Reply 10513

im sure they get a bit above minimum wage tho. and like i said - lecturing us is only a couple of hours a week and most of them dont even fdo it year round.

Reply 10514

anyway if they ere that craply paid david ellar couldnt afford to pay people for the answers to lexcture questions :wink:

Reply 10515

fishpaste

You'd have to be a hardcore academic to work here. Some of the doctors here actually live in Mem Court. Next to us students. That'd be horrible for them. And they get terrible pay. I think the only benefits are the relatively low stress nature of the job.

Reply 10516

id be stressed as hell at giving a lecture to 400 students :eek:

Reply 10517

fishpaste

crana9

id be stressed as hell at giving a lecture to 400 students :eek:

well it wouldn't be too bad, the material is probably mickey mouse to them. I think the stress of working in the city etc would be overwhelming, which is why I seriously think I'll seriously stay away from all that.

Reply 10518

crana9

im sure they get a bit above minimum wage tho. and like i said - lecturing us is only a couple of hours a week and most of them dont even fdo it year round.

Of course they get above bloody minimum wage! You'd flipping expect so, given that they're all super-trained! There isn't just lecturing! There are loads of other parts to the teaching process, like the paperwork - and organising and running those damn cells practicals (which we all appreciate(d) so much): believe it or not, they are a nightmare to run! Plus, they don't just lecture and do all of this for 1 year at a time! I have Wothers for chemistry two hours after you do on a Saturday (granted, he is a 'teaching fellow' and unless you have Nolan now - joy of joys...). They have to write the exams and traul through god-knows how many pages of crap scripts...and get papers published for the university. They are poorly payed considering the number of people who could do their job - contrast this with a business, where people are far easier to replace.

Ben

Reply 10519