Billions and Billions

 This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

Back when I was teaching one of may favorite things was to answer questions. Sometimes you can just get by with the facts. But a lot of the time, when you're working on getting someone to understand some mathematical concept (or any other concept, I'm sure), you need to nudge them in a way that works for them. And people think differently. So to help them understand, you have to answer the same question different ways for different people.

To Thine Own Self

 This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper.  

Here in the new year, some of the events I've attended encouraged us to come up with a slogan for the new year. Something more general than a resolution, but a thought to guide oneself through the year. So I have selected the slogan of: “To thine own self be true”.