"Robert Weinberg - Logical Magician 01 - A Logical Magician" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weinberg Robert)

women and two men, the group consisted of his extra-help class in Freshman Calculus.
Escaping them was not going to be easy. Groaning, he settled back in his seat.
Tutoring was something new at the university and one of Jack's least favorite
chores. Unfortunately, as a Ph.D. graduate assistant, he had little choice in his teaching
assignments. He did what he was told. Needless to say, graduate assistants were always
given the courses none of the regular professors wanted.
All freshmen attending the school were required to take at least one math course.
Calculus 101 was the bane of the mathematics department. Though they had mandated the
requirements, the Board of Regents had made it quite clear that they would consider it
quite disturbing if very many of the incoming students, paying tuition that the university
desperately needed, flunked the course and dropped out of school. Thus, not only did
graduate assistants teach an extremely watered-down calculus course, they also
conducted extra-help classes after normal class hours for those students who were so bad
at mathematics that they needed a continual shove to keep them even with their
classmates.
Jack, born with a gift for calculation and logic, found the tutoring sessions
incredibly depressing. All his life, he had labored under the impression that anyone could
learn mathematics if taught correctly. The calm, precise nature of the subject seemed as
natural as breathing. He never imagined people existed who were unable to perform even
the simplest of calculations without breaking into a cold sweat. Until this semester, when
he encountered his extra-help group.
Not that they were stupid. The six students were among the brightest young men
and women in the university. They all wanted to learn. They struggled desperately to
understand. But they were incapable of solving basic equations, much less genuine
calculus problems.
In desperation, Jack finally followed the lead of several other graduate assistants
struggling with the same headache. Before the most recent exam, he reviewed the entire
test with his tutorial. Step by step, he dissected each question, proceeding through it to
the correct solution. Though he balked at telling his charges that these were the same
problems they would face the next day, he strongly hinted to them that knowing how to
solve these practice equations would make the test a snap. And, despite everything, all six
flunked the exam.
"You weren't in your office this afternoon, Professor Collins," Sandra Stevens
declared angrily, yanking Jack back to reality. The co-ed had a voice like chalk scratching
over a blackboard. "We waited for over an hour."
"Yeah," said Gil Neumann. An architecture major, Gil could not grasp the
fundamentals of trigonometry. Some time back, Jack had made a sacred vow that in the
distant future he would never enter a building designed by Neumann.
"Quite boring," added Simon Fellows. An exchange student from England, Simon's
voice betrayed only the slightest accent. Of all Jack's extra-help students. Fellows was the
most frustrating. An English major, he scored phenomenal grades in all of his other
courses. But, though he could recite the most difficult facts without blinking twice, Simon
seemed incapable of understanding basic logic.
"Sorry," said Jack. "I had a job interview that took a little longer than I expected.
Then, afterward, I wasted more time by allowing myself to be mugged."
"Mugged?" said Sandra, her voice so loud that half the cafeteria turned to see what
was going on. "You were mugged?"
"You do look a little more worse for wear than usual," remarked Simon, eternally
cheerful.
Nothing ever bothered the exchange student. He laughed at misfortune, though Jack