MathCAD for My Children

My grand MathCAD plan (dating back several years yet again), is to rewrite my yellowing calculus notes from college, effectively digitizing these documents (and positioning them for formats like MathML). Sadly, this idealism languishes in the trials and tribulations of things nothing to do with tribbles and, alas, years pass. I awake to find that, in April of 2006, Allen Razdow (the guy who wrote MathCAD back in 1985) sold his product to PTC.

The grand, grand goal here is to revive my math knowledge so that it can readily available when my toddling children finally make it to a school setting where they start learning mathematics. Working out in MathCAD is just another one of those fitness options out there. When my math strength is up I can be cool about math. A very simple conversation with my children can quickly turn into a math lesson for a few minutes and turn back into kid stuff without them even noticing it.

Success for me in this area is when I discover that my children are casually conversant about “advanced” math issues. This is quite a tall order because my children are definitely immersed in a society where people think such behavior is remarkable—and sharp remarks about my children playing with math may make them withdraw from the behavior to conform naturally to the unnatural pride in stupidity that is characteristic of an oppressed people. This will really piss me off if this happens to my daughter (especially since her maternal grandfather is a mathematician)—but I can’t blame her—I blame you (or that punk sitting next to you).

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