Most Frustrating, Embarrassing Brain Farts

  • Context: Undergrad 
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around participants sharing their experiences of frustrating mistakes or "brain farts" encountered in physics and mathematics. The scope includes personal anecdotes, humorous reflections, and informal exchanges about errors in reasoning, calculations, and misconceptions in mathematical properties.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant recounts a personal experience of struggling with a physics problem involving a velocity-dependent force, highlighting a moment of realization about variable separation.
  • Another participant humorously reflects on frequently miscalculating their age, suggesting a light-hearted approach to mistakes.
  • Several participants share instances of misapplying logarithmic properties, with one noting a specific incorrect equation.
  • A participant proposes a humorous theory that a certain percentage of differentiation and integration mistakes occur, likening it to a mathematical uncertainty principle.
  • Multiple participants joke about the common mistake of incorrectly canceling terms, specifically the expression \(\frac{2}{2} = 0\), with several admitting to similar errors in their past tests.
  • Some participants express a desire to discuss moments of clarity instead of mistakes, indicating a shift in focus within the conversation.
  • There are various humorous exchanges and images shared, contributing to the light-hearted nature of the discussion.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the humorous nature of their mistakes and share a sense of camaraderie in their experiences. However, there is no consensus on the severity or implications of these "brain farts," as they range from light-hearted anecdotes to more serious reflections on learning.

Contextual Notes

Some statements reflect personal experiences and subjective interpretations of mathematical concepts, which may depend on individual understanding and context. The discussion does not resolve the implications of these errors or their impact on learning.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to students and educators in physics and mathematics, as well as anyone who has experienced similar moments of confusion or error in their academic pursuits.

Jilvin
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I am a "physics guru", at least at my high school's level (which isn't really anything at all). I know several advanced integration techniques, linear algebra, and fairly advanced methods for solving differential equations. Even with all of this mathematics background, I still have not taken the AP Physics C exam due to my school's (in my personal opinion) lax curriculum not offering it as of now.
So, with my 8 dollar "University Physics" book, I scanned through to the "challenge problems" (which only take about a minute or two of thought to complete). One of the problems had me analyze certain properties of the equation (showing a velocity dependent force):

m(dv/dt)= Cv2

So, with all my arrogance and background, I tackled this problem. However, I soon became infuriated by the fact that I could not integrate the RHS with respect to time! I drastically manipulated differentials, but it was of no use! This simple problem had stumped me!

Then, about an hour after I had given up in despair, I realized that the left hand side of the equation existed and that I could divide by the v2 term to separate the variables. Wow. Just... wow. Does anybody else have these discouragingly terrible brain farts?
 
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oh you I answered my age wrong ...twice -_-
I think I can think of e=mc^2 faster than my age xD
 
I think everyone has used a property of logarithms wrong at least once in a long, complicated problem and had to retrace their steps until they saw the boneheaded nonsense log(a + b) = log(a)log(b) in some dense block. Or maybe that's just me. :p
Also, 2 + 3 = 6, of course.
 
My theory is that 10% of all differentiations end up as integrations and 10% of integrations end up as differentiations.:cry:.It's sort of like a mathematical uncertainty principle.
 
Have you never canceled out 2s?

\frac 2 2 = 0
 
Borek said:
Have you never canceled out 2s?

\frac 2 2 = 0

:smile:
 
:redface:...:shy:...:frown:......:mad:...:devil:----- Get it?! :biggrin:
 
  • #10
Borek said:
Have you never canceled out 2s?

\frac 2 2 = 0

I probably have. I know for sure I did this once on a test:

(x + y)3 = x3 + y3

:redface:
 
  • #11
Can't we talk about our infallible moments of lucid insight instead? Much shorter list.
 
  • #12
[PLAIN]http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/profile-ak-snc4/object2/1868/74/n190172509102_8960.jpg
[PLAIN]http://www.freewebs.com/fos08/Jokes/funny%20maths%201.JPG
[PLAIN]http://haha.nu/files/uploads/farm1.static.flickr.com/170/371722884_a8d1da8f44_o.gif
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #13
http://www.woosk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/whale.jpg
 
  • #14
Borek said:
Have you never canceled out 2s?

\frac 2 2 = 0

Way too many times...
 
  • #15
lisab said:
I probably have. I know for sure I did this once on a test:

(x + y)3 = x3 + y3

:redface:


Eek!:smile:

Then again, I can't even recall the last time I sat for a test that even remotely asked a question like that.
 
  • #16
lisab said:
I probably have. I know for sure I did this once on a test:

(x + y)3 = x3 + y3

:redface:

Of course, one of x or y was 0, right? :-p
 
  • #17
PracticeFish said:
Of course, x=y=0, right? :-p

x=-y

PS: Hey! You did it actually in the thread!
 
  • #18
Upisoft said:
x=-y

PS: Hey! You did it actually in the thread!

Damn, me too. There are 2 more solutions:
x = 0 and y = 0
 
  • #19
I was asking you all for your personal worst brain farts, but posting complete nonsense is also fine I guess.
 

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