Way Beyond Infinity: Frank's inability to talk about math.

By: Jimmy Morefield

Faculty Smorgasbord is usually a chance for scholars to experience a new class and meet a faculty member other than in their chosen major and minor. Usually. However, in Frank Corley’s “Tiptoeing Toward Infinity”, math took a backseat more than once. As the “preview” class (who learned more in an hour than the major had in two days) played around with complex math operations, the group began a discussion about knowledge. Math knowledge? Nope. Frank revealed, as crazy as it sounds, that adults simplify information for kids. The group then carried on a five minute conversation about the youths’ plan to revolt against the adult “capitalists” who guard the “vault containing all of the knowledge”. When asked about his part in the “knowledge oppression” of the student “laborers”, Frank supported the revolution, unafraid of the coming downfall of the adults since he claims to be only five years from retirement. As knowledge was redistributed, the issue of inferior numbers was brought up. You’ve probably never thought about numbers as unequal, besides, you know, the fact that they’re different numbers. Upon closer inspection though, Frank pointed out that, when compared to an excellent numbers like one, two, three, etc., people harshly categorize numbers below zero as ‘negative”. Mind Blowing. Among other completely relevant stories, the group learned that mathematician George Cantor didn’t actually go insane, unlike every student trying to study infinity. Eventually, after Frank prompted the class to “add a list to our list of lists”, we actually made some mathematical progress, discovering the true nature of infinity. Unfortunately for anyone in his major seeking spoilers, Frank swore the class to secrecy because spoilers are “like taking all the flavor out of someone chewing gum.” Nobody wants that. The various side topics, combined with an interest in learning more math, pushed the session to 9:50, over twenty minutes longer than it should have been. Fortunately, the class seemed to enjoy Frank’s random tangents and genuinely excellent math instruction and they gave ample thanks as they exited the Smorg with some even sticking around for another ten minutes.