<p>
[quote]
Hey! At least physicists ask the right questions!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Some of us ask the right questions AND can write a valid argument down.</p>
<p>OK I'm done being idiotic.</p>
<p>I think what lizzardfire meant, and please correct me if I am wrong, was that in his time at Caltech, rocketDA interacted primarily graduate students and is hence a better reference for Caltech graduate student life than undergraduate student life.</p>
<p>I think lizzard mixed RocketDA and me up. I'm a grad student here at Caltech that posts pretty frequently 'round these parts.</p>
<p>As for what I can say about Caltech classes? Well, I'm glad I only have to take 15 of them. While I'm putting in similar amounts of work to what I did in undergrad for each of my classes, I find the work a lot less rewarding and I seem to learn a lot less per hour of homework than I did in undergrad. I don't think I'd feel as strongly this way if I had done undergrad at Caltech and been through all of the pre-reqs, but I just feel the quality of teaching (at least in graduate courses) is fairly poor. Many professors actually have a reputation at being so bad that other professors will laugh when you tell them you're in their course.</p>
<p>Oops. RacinReaver is right, my bad. I'm not really sure where Rocket's experience with Caltech is from, then.</p>
<p>(your names both start with R, dammit!)</p>
<p>I see, OK cool. I think Rocket did some research or some sort of such work on the Caltech premises.</p>
<p>Yeah. I'm not a grad student. I'm a senior at HMC. I did some engineering work for a lab at GALCIT over the course of a year though. (and spent another summer on campus)</p>
<p>Sorry for the confusion, folks.</p>
<p>@mathboy</p>
<p>consider the parable of the mathematician:</p>
<p>One day a brilliant mathematician proved a theorem about the boiling of an egg. It prescribed an algorithm as follows for said boiling of an egg: First obtain a pot. Second, fill the pot with tap water. Third, place pot on stove and heat to boiling. Lastly, place egg in water for three minutes.</p>
<p>The next day he finds a pot of boiling water his roommate left behind with a note asking him to boil an egg. The brilliant mathematician, presented with a challenge, sits down, and thinks.</p>
<p>After a while he exclaims "Trivial, this reduces to a previously solved problem!" as he dumps out the boiling water, fills the pot with cold tap water, and then sets it to boil again.</p>
<p>Sorry for the irrelevance...but I couldn't restrain myself</p>
<p>LOL -- there's also the one about the physicist, mathematician, and engineer rooming together on a higher storied building, when there's a fire. The engineer quickly builds an effective parachute out of a blanket, and goes out the window. The physicist calculates the most efficient route of escape after considering all factors in a few minutes, and escapes. The mathematician's face lightens up, and says "Ah! There does exist an elegant solution to this situation!" And then goes to sleep.</p>
<p>@mathboy98</p>
<p>This thread looks dead, and physicist versus mathematician wars are a bit off topic anyway. We should start a new thread, which I think would actually be appropriate given this is the Caltech forum...</p>
<p>My multivariable calculus professor told me some version of your joke, and mine. Funny guy (as were his jokes), but I absolutely hated his class...</p>