University of Zojoji

When Tim heard a university had been built in Zojoji, he rode to the university and applied for the professorship of mathematics. After looking over his credentials, the university board decided to make him not only the math professor, but the president of the university. Tim was surprised, but was confident he could make the university the best in the world.

As Tim looked through the documents on the university, he noticed that none of the teachers or the students had any names! For that matter, neither did any of the board members! He invited anyone with a name to become a student, or a teacher if they are qualified. He decided the board members could remain nameless, since they wouldn't do anything important anyways.

I would like to be a student, but what courses are avaliable, maybe by corespondance as i will be going on a holiday to the new continent soon.

The only subject being tought by a professor with a name is mathematics (which includes algebra, geometry, and trigonometry). Nameless professors will teach Japanese and any foreign languages that are in demand (could include French, English, Russian, Zulu, German, Latin, the Iroquois languages (there are approximately eight of them), Hindi, Babylonian, Aztec, or Chinese). They will also teach philosophy, religion, artisanship, astronomy, biology, alchemy, medicine, and possibly some other classes. If you want to take a different class, I'll see if I can get a nameless professor to teach it.

Hydrino loves mathematics! He'd love to receive some lessons via mail, as he's sailing to the new world right now.

Benturi-Sensei, wakarimasen Nihon-go!

Excellent, Hydrino! I now have a student with a name.

Crimso said:

Benturi-Sensei, wakarimasen Nihon-go!

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OOC: I don't know if my character is supposed to understand that, but I know I don't.

Hahaha! That's exactly what I said!

After a particularly boring lecture series, Tim came up with an interesting idea. He entered his class and said, "I have decided to talk about probability next. To obtain some good examples, I'm going to Kagemusha to analyze some of the games in their casino. While I'm gone, you'll have a nameless substitute." After class, he quickly rode to Kagemusha. What Tim did not realize is that rumors about a possible gambling problem began to spread. The board decided they would have to talk about this to Tim when he returned, even though they did not believe the rumors themselves.

A half drunk Provolution came inside the lecturing hall, stumbling over some frontrow chairs before he managed to get to the podium, he leaned heavily on the pedestal table,and narrowed his floating eyes as he sized up the students spread thinly around.

"Today students, I am Provolution, your guest speaker today, and a replacement for my friend Tim Bentley who went to study game theory and applied commercial psychology relevant to probability theory, chaos theory and Corrupzione Law.
First of all, my esteemed students, I would like to talk about information transparency and decision.making with limited information under risk. Another aspect is that when some players are playing, but they do not want to play, they can fold the cards and give up. However, we at Kagemusha found that such games added too much predictability, and strategy and reasoning became all too important. How do we play a game that is pure chaos theory, and develop theories and methods handling this chaos? My discovery was that the human factor of the game, where intuition, instincts , lusts, desires, wants, needs, enviousness, arrogance and other human features in most games were omitted for the grounds of having what they call a fair game."

The students, half sleeping, was wathing him half-interested as they sighed and heaved, some of them dutifully wrote some lines with their pencil.

"But what is a fair game, anyone?" Provolution asked rhetorically.

He came back with the voice mounting in force to become a thunderous roar....

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FAIR PLAY IN THE REAL WORLD AND A FAIR GAME IS NOT HEALTHY FOR HUMAN RATIONALIZATION OF THE SITUATIONAL CONTEXT AS IT IS TOO PERFECT TO UNDERSTAND FOR THE ANIMAL SIDE OF THE HUMAN MIND".

Provolution, paused, smoothened down his tone...

"That is why we established the gambling rules around the concept of Constituzione, agreed laws of the game, Corrupzione, acceptable cheating and discrimination codes, Natural Laws like the need to get drunk, or fondled by Harlots and Babes or just pass out, which is quite natural and human and finally Rhetorical and logical laws, where the
laws of persuasion, subjugation and incitation are part of the human interaction. The Kagemusha gambling board, has in its brilliance realized all this, and that is why some of the brightest minds of Japanatica go there to gamble to face the ultimate human challenge and still have a chance to win. We even invented "Abstain" as a guiding principle for "I do not want to play with you, but would gladly kick your ass" as a vent for supressed agression. We also use revolver duels in order to vent anger, our clinical psychology practice is cheap and highly effective, and based on pure principles of natural selection. Finally, the main point is that, Constituzione Casino is probably the most thought evolving institution in this country right now, and Iurge you to take a study trip there once. I will personally see that you can apply your reasoning skills and
test out your commercial parameters for risk assessment and lust control. "

Sayonara Gakujins

Do you teach medicine at the University?

Not yet. We aren't in the industrial ages. Medicine will be tought soon, however (probably a couple of turnchats).

A class in physics is now being taught by a nameless professor.

Here follows a transcript of a letter sent from Tim to Hydrino:

Tim's letter said:

Dear Hydrino,

I hope you are enjoying your time in the new world. I'm enjoying myself at the casino in Kagemusha. A new area of science called physics has been discovered. As is true with all sciences, mathematics plays a part, although I believe physics uses more math than any other science. There is one physics equation in particular I thought you might find interesting. The equation is how far a projectile (such as an arrow) will go if shot at a certain velocity and angle. I won't go through all of the derivation, but it involves finding the time it takes for the y distance to equal zero and determine how far in the x direction the projectile goes. The range equals the velocity squared times the sine of the angle doubled, divided by acceleration due to gravity. In my next letter, I intend to write to you about probability, using some examples from here in Kagemusha.

Sincerely,
Tim

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When Tim arrived at the university, he was greeted by the board members. They said, "There have been some rumors about your departure to Kagemusha. They have died down as the absurdity of the rumors was realized due to your character, but we still thought you should know about them. A bigger problem, is your substitute. He came in half drunk and basically told the students they should gamble in Kagemusha."

Tim replied, "I told him not to drink before coming to class. And I didn't know he would talk about the casino. But I think it's good for the students to hear from someone other than me every once in a while."

Tim walked into his class, and the students greeted him, glad to see he was back. Tim said, "I know I said I was going to talk about probability, but a new discovery takes preference at this time. Probability will follow later. Before I continue, someone came in and told you about physics and how it relates to mathematics, correct?" The students nodded.

"Well, my colleague Gottfried Leibniz from the University of Beijing has discovered a new area of math called calculus," Tim continued, "which has many applications, many of which are not obvious.

"According to one professor, calculus is about limits, derivatives, integrals, and integrals (OOC: the latter two are referring to indefinite and definite integrals separately). So let me start by talking about limits. The limit of a function at a is a particular number L if the value of the function as it gets close to a approaches L. There is a more precise definition, but I'll get to that later. Now, to find a limit...."

Mayor Cyc came to visit Tim at the University. Cyc had wanted to come and speak with University President for some time, but this was the first chance he had. He wished to speak of concerns and plans for the University, but he also had a special request.

"Greeting, Tim. You've done a fine job with the administration of policy here at Zojoji University. We're very happy with the courses you're teaching and the progress of the students. The City is making plans for a new wing for this place of higher learning and would like your input on the matter. Please let us at City Hall know what you think of the idea.

"It was great seeing you get out and relax a bit at the Casino. I enjoyed listening to you talk and watching you test you luck at gambling both. By the way, I was wondering if I might present one of your mathematics classes with a quiz question. The class, of course, would be up to you. But I've found this question and I'd like some help with it. It is this:

"How much does a book weigh if it weighs 1 pound plus half its own weight?"

"What do you think? Would this be a suitable question for one of your classes? I might even be able to set up some sort of tuition grant or whatever to the student who first answer the question correctly."

"A new wing for the university would certainly be appreciated," Tim replied, "Especially since the number of classes we are offering is growing as scientists continue to gain new knowledge. As far as the quiz question is concerned, I'll ask it, but I think more students will answer it quickly than you might realize. I don't think a tuition grant is necessary."

Tim later wrote another letter to Hydrino:

Tim's letter said:

Dear Hydrino,

Mayor Cyc has come up with a question he'd like me to ask the class you're in: "How much does a book weigh if it weighs 1 pound plus half its own weight?" Go ahead and answer that question when you write me your homework (OOC: if you respond, you don't have to worry about the homework).

Sincerely,
Tim

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Cyc said:

Mayor Cyc came to visit Tim at the University. Cyc had wanted to come and speak with University President for some time, but this was the first chance he had. He wished to speak of concerns and plans for the University, but he also had a special request.

"Greeting, Tim. You've done a fine job with the administration of policy here at Zojoji University. We're very happy with the courses you're teaching and the progress of the students. The City is making plans for a new wing for this place of higher learning and would like your input on the matter. Please let us at City Hall know what you think of the idea.

"It was great seeing you get out and relax a bit at the Casino. I enjoyed listening to you talk and watching you test you luck at gambling both. By the way, I was wondering if I might present one of your mathematics classes with a quiz question. The class, of course, would be up to you. But I've found this question and I'd like some help with it. It is this:

"How much does a book weigh if it weighs 1 pound plus half its own weight?"

"What do you think? Would this be a suitable question for one of your classes? I might even be able to set up some sort of tuition grant or whatever to the student who first answer the question correctly."

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OOC: Either 2 Pounds or Infinite I think.... It matters how you look at it....

Black_Hole said:

OOC: Either 2 Pounds or Infinite I think.... It matters how you look at it....

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Let's assume the weight of the book is a real number.

TimBentley said:

Let's assume the weight of the book is a real number.

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OOC: hmmm, Im not taking Calculus for 2 years(my junior year in HS)
For example a simple equation would be : b=1+1/2b with 'b' being the book's weight, this clearly shows the weight being 2

Mayor Cyc wonders how the class did with the question, so he wanders back over to the University to see Tim. The Professor is out of course and the secretary suggests that maybe he had gone back to the Casino (rolling her eyes). Flustered, Cyc decides to leave him a note.

Dear Professor Tim,

Sorry I missed you, I just came over for a chat. How did the question go over with your class? You're right about the difficulty, it was a little too easy, so maybe free tickets to the Zojoji Kubuki-Za Theatre would be more appropriate. I've left a pair of tickets for the student who answered the last question, a pair for you and a pair for the student who answers the next question. Here it is...

A footbol tournament is organized so that every participating team plays a game against every other team once and only once. If a total of 28 games are played, how many teams participated?

Check back in later,
Mayor Cyc