i prefer pi

MATH 152: Calculus II for Engineers; Fall 2001

• Erdelyi: “So ve haff zeese integral, and ve vant to integrate zeese function, but ve can’t yet… ve haff to make zee function haff a friend in zee dx portion, so ve vill take zee function and–”
  Student: “Umm… Dr. Erdelyi?”
  Erdelyi: “Yes?”
  Student: “umm… did you just say ‘friend’?”
  Erdelyi: “Yes… ve vant to make zee dx portion of zee function be a friend to zee ozzer portion, so we make zee dx portion from zee ozzer portion, and pop! It feets right in. Just like two friends playing as children and one tricks ozzer into playing in zee well… he falls in and fits perfectly, just like zee dx portion of zee function–”
  Student: “Umm… did you just say that it’s like falling into a well?”
  Erdelyi: “Exactly. So ve take zee new function zat we created and integrate it, accounting for…”

His class was frequently this surreal.

POLS 207: State and Local Government; Fall 2001

• “Assassination is a form of political participation”

CPSC 111H: Introduction to Computer Science; Fall 2001

• Pete: “So in a linked list, each node is made up of some number of elements and some number of pointers, which point to other nodes”
  Student: “Umm… I thought you said that we don’t have pointers in Java”
  Pete: “Fine… each node is made up of elements and ‘references’, which I will abbreviate as ‘ptr’. “
• “There isn’t a problem that I can’t solve with more of your money”
• “This might be on your exam”