Well then, I too am curious as to how you could say the original was a flame. I think what this little episode shows, more than anything such as a clash of personalities, are the obvious limitations of forum boards.

Mike and I have been at this for a while and got nowhere, other than piled under layers of accusations and misunderstandings. Mike, what I pointed out as hypocritical and vitriolic are indeed so if read a certain way, but by your insistence I''m sure you didn''t mean that when writing it. I would even go as far to say that you''re probably not reading my post in the way it was meant to be read. What you have called childish name calling might not necessarily be so, if it was heard spoken.

Anyway, I hope this has left no hard feelings. Or at least none that are irreparable.

r.



"The mere thought hadn''t even begun to speculate about the slightest possibility of traversing the eternal wasteland that is my mind..."

Squeejee,
I realize this thread has gotten somewhat off topic and that is probably the last thing you wanted but I figured you might want another opinion.

If you have desire at all to take Physics or Linear Algebra in College then I suggest taking Calculus. Yes, you can teach physics and linear algebra without ever even mentioning the word calculus but you will not get the all important "how''s" and "why''s". Does it really matter if you can program physics to a ''T'' if you do not know the derivations of the equations you are using?

You will also be making higher level physics and algebra a breeze by taking calculus. It is amazing at how many relationships you can see. Knowing the very elementary fact that the time derivative of a position function gives you the velocity at any given time...and then the derivative of *that* velocity function gives you the acceleration at any time. Or that the integral of a velocity function gives the total displacement. Or something that can be *increasingly* difficult without calculus is calculating net work done on an object with a varying force (integrals once again).

My college differential equations textbook had a one-hundred page section on linear algebra alone before it ever even discuss elementary differential equations. A college level textbook on Classical Mechanics I just bought recently had a huge section on only calculus. And looking through my vector mechanics book from college I see mentions of topics from linear algebra in every other page.

If you are having a hard time believing anything I say just know that I have taken some of the "hardest" math courses that the state of Texas has to offer (note that after Algebra II everything just gets easier...more work but easier). My background is mathematics and aerospace engineering. In math, I specialized in differential geometry and numerical analysis. In AE, I specialized in flight dynamics. The mathematics of Euler angles/quaternions are the same as those used in animation controller systems such as IK. I also wrote 3D modeling software from scratch (and won two student paper competitions). My fifteen years of 3D experience includes writing 3d parameteric splines at General Dynamics that were ultimately used to debug heruistics for the heads-up display. At GD, I wrote one of the first vector (wireframe) renderers for 3D geometry for an old Evans & Sutherland system.

Good luck.