Did I Really Say That!?

One of my students, Kristina Olson (couldn't find a web url), took a little time out from my lecture to write down various things I'd said. Now, I'm not sure I actually said all of this (but I probably did), but it did make me laugh out loud.

"The more advanced you get, the less important units are -- don't tell anyone I said that."

"Sean!" [the demo helper -- when something doesn't work I would call for him]

"You get one of those answers that are 99% correct and 1% wrong."

"All the protons have to carry passports."

"Sometimes, I wonder how much thinking I do in a day."

"Physics is lazy."

"I mean, your damn charges have no v!"

[about a mysterious demo...] "The guys back there probably know [how it works] -- fortunately these things aren't labeled."

"What is the inductor going to feel? ... Not that inductors have feelings or anything." [moments later] "And the inductor says, 'What, no way...'"

"You'll think, 'oh my goodness, the couldn't be wrong...'"
[on solving difficult sign omission] "Clearly...physics is right."

"I'm departing from my class notes, usually a recipe for disaster."

"I can't believe you guys let me lecture for 45 minutes with my pants open?!"

"We'll be here all freaking lecture and you'll just see how much I can mess up algebra."

"Have you ever wondered what the wall looks like? What does the wall look like?"

"Instead of that bunch of words there we'd like to turn this into some math."

"It's amazing, my last demo worked." [end of 2nd quarter]

"Man this is not the way to go right before a teacher evaluation."

"I'm just going to write down the answer, something I know you guys love."

"If you were in a decent sized boat... Like my boat. Like my yacht."

[on not being able to get the computer to work] "I see nothing has changed over break."
[followed by] "I know what to do." [and a quest for Sean]

"I wonder if my demos will work."

"...and I drop negative signs like it's nobody's business."

"NO! Ether bad!"

"Is that how you spell 'slinky?'"

"...then clearly your hypothesis is messed up."

[on why phones sound so tinny]"They can't do multiple tones like my modern COOL cell phone."

"I'm going to get myself into real trouble one of these days."

"That's a really good and obvious question, and I've never really thought about it."

[rarefraction] "There are some words that just weren't meant to be pronounced by me."

"As you know, negative signs and I are like that [crossed fingers]."

"I can twirl? I don't think that's dignified."

[about Maxwell] "He thought about it a whole bunch. And then...he came up with a clicker question."
"Oh wait I have another -- Maxwell came up with 2 clicker questions."

"..why people say speed of light is a law. It's not just a good idea."

[about cell phone reception] "I was going to say a forest, but then you need Verizon, right?"

"..That's why if you drive from here to Chicago, at some point you only get country."

[on the visible spectra] "Look at how much of that spectrum they cover. What a piece of crap our eyes are."

"So when your partner says, 'What do you see in me?' You have a great answer [the visible spectrum]."

"Never trust a theorist."

[on the EM spear] "Does this have a vector direction? Well yeah, obviously it's a vector, it's got an arrow."

"Let's just take a plain plane wave. A plane pain. A ... Let's just take an ordinary plane wave."

"You were confused by the clown face?"
"That's you. That's what you look like to me."

[clicker advice]
"Well you know this is the longest answer, so it's probably right."

"You can have blue shift if the star is approaching. That's usually a bad thing."

"So.. Lord knows I've totally forgotten."

[on multiple lenses] "If you ever meet one of these guys in a back alley, don't let them scare or intimidate you."

"It's hard because it's not obvious."

[on changing the labs] "This is like changing the direction of a supertanker, but it can be done."

"Let's just pretend -- it's magic light."

"Wow. Physics actually works.. doesn't happen too often in this class."

"So over here I've got a TV. You guys know what a TV is?"

"You know, I don't even know why I became a professor."

[when the cable fell out of the clicker computer] "We've had a wardrobe malfunction up here."
"That was an adventure."

"Or perhaps it's a blue shift and you can tell how fast it's coming at you and you can get out of the way."

[on trips to Chicago, etc.] "I've got to teach 3 hours a week and for that I get a humongous, well a decent paycheck, and I can't even do that, can I?"

"So the electrons go 'whoosh!' Or whatever they do."

[interfear] "That's not how you spell 'interfere.'"

"It's the computer's fault, clearly."

"I'm really not a chemistry guy."

"This drawing of the electric field is not a kosher drawing."

"Just remember, it's your fault, it's always your fault. No, I'm just kidding (not really, I just say that to make you feel better)."

"Light is just not like that -- it just doesn't oscillate that way."

"We ignore magnetism and play favorites with electricity."

[the scary demo...} "What is ticking?"
"There we go, it's not going to blow up now."

"I thought you should know that I don't really know very much."

[why we know light has energy] "If you focus it properly you can make a beetle explode."

[And one of my personal favorites:]

"That's real life, this is 123."

Whew! Someone else commented that they stopped doing this because there were more quotes than there were actual notes. Hmmm. I hope they learned something! But seriously, this was a fun and good group of students and I'd wish them luck but, frankly, I don't think most of them are going to need it. Ah, heck. Good luck!

Comments

[Helge]

Hey Gordon! As wierd as it sounds for the reason: "there were more quotes than there were actual notes. " I stopped writing down quotes during lectures ...
And thanks for sharing them!

[Aaron]

Grrrrrr... I hope "rarefaction" was spelled wrong intentionally! "Rarefraction" and the even more egregious "rarefication" are two of my worst pet peeves. >:( Otherwise, though, the quotes are fantastic... sounds like an exciting class!

p.s. How many students do you have? (60 quotes / student) * (a mere 20 students) / (365 days / year) = enough quotes to make page-a-day calendars for the next three years! ;)

[Gordon Watts]

Yeah. That was just a cut/paste from the internal class BBS, with a few additions by me. I didn't spelling correct. And, as any of my students will tell you, I couldn't have spelling corrected even if I'd wanted to (I'm horrible).

This was the honrors class, so there were only about 50 students.