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Why do Stanford math professors still use chalk? (2021)

stanforddaily.com

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Re: Why do Stanford math professors still use chalk? (2021)

#41

Post by bitwize »

ido wrote: post #8
chermi wrote: post #2

It's like writing on paper vs writing on a digital tablet. The difference in tactile feedback leads to better handwriting, at least for me. I'm curious about the phenomenon they mentioned of "circles being smaller with markers". I definitely noticed that when teaching my overall font size decreased on markers vs. chalk, even when using the skinny chalks. But the effective tip size even with small chalk is larger than…

I did not appreciate having to pound the dust out of the erasers when I was in grade school. I wonder if they could make the chalk magnetic and have magnetic trap at the bottom or something. But again too complicated. The Russian solution is to use water - wipe the board with a wet sponge.

Pounding the dust out of the erasers was something American students often found fun, especially as elementary school students; this is referenced in the Tom Lehrer song "New Math": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIKGV2cTgqA

Re: Why do Stanford math professors still use chalk? (2021)

#43

Post by gblargg »

neilv wrote: post #40
kiwih wrote: post #38

Strange question - has the "submitted at" times been edited on this post and all the comments here? I swear I read everything on this submission, including the comments, several days ago, but nothing here is longer than a few hours. Actually, google search agrees with me - if you search for the title here + hackernews, it says that it saw this post and several of the comments 6 days ago (apologies that I can't link t…

Falsifying timestamps is a kludge that HN uses when moderators give a post a second chance to gain traction on the front page. (Personally, I have a strong aversion to falsifying public information like this, and I hope that they will prioritize implementing this better.)

This might explain why I see a post, then have trouble finding it the next day. It sounds like it can move around in the order of things.

Re: Why do Stanford math professors still use chalk? (2021)

#44

Post by procaryote »

Flibble21 wrote: post #34

As a teacher that uses chalk and white boards I can heartily tell you that chalk sucks. It's messy on your hands and cloths, it breaks and is difficult to erase from the board. White board markers are so much nicer. The criticisms of markers seem to be, from the article: You can't tell when they will run out. This is not true, they fade out not stop suddenly. Also, it is always possible to carry a spare marker or two…

If you leave writing on a whiteboard too long water won't do the trick and you'll need something stronger, like isoproplanol, or one of the many purpose mixed cleaning sprays

"chemicals" isn't inherently bad of course, if that needs saying. Don't drink the cleaning spray and you'll be fine

Re: Why do Stanford math professors still use chalk? (2021)

#45

Post by bitwize »

PeterStuer wrote: post #4

Chalk, the Emacs of boards.

When I saw the OP's headline I thought "because mathematicians think with chalk the way I think with code". One of the reasons why I Loathe and Detest LLM-based development is because I've developed the (potentially very bad) habit of working through my ideas with (sometimes heavily commented or literate-programmed) code—and LLMs basically take that workflow away from me almost entirely.

Re: Why do Stanford math professors still use chalk? (2021)

#48

Post by neilv »

gblargg wrote: post #43
neilv wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Falsifying timestamps is a kludge that HN uses when moderators give a post a second chance to gain traction on the front page. (Personally, I have a strong aversion to falsifying public information like this, and I hope that they will prioritize implementing this better.)

This might explain why I see a post, then have trouble finding it the next day. It sounds like it can move around in the order of things.

That might be a different mechanism.

Unlike Reddit, the ordering of HN posts isn't only a function of the numbers of votes, number of comments, and time. Some other moderation activity can cause a front page post to suddenly be buried many pages deep.

Re: Why do Stanford math professors still use chalk? (2021)

#50

Post by readthenotes1 »

procaryote wrote: post #44
Flibble21 wrote: post #34

As a teacher that uses chalk and white boards I can heartily tell you that chalk sucks. It's messy on your hands and cloths, it breaks and is difficult to erase from the board. White board markers are so much nicer. The criticisms of markers seem to be, from the article: You can't tell when they will run out. This is not true, they fade out not stop suddenly. Also, it is always possible to carry a spare marker or two…

If you leave writing on a whiteboard too long water won't do the trick and you'll need something stronger, like isoproplanol, or one of the many purpose mixed cleaning sprays "chemicals" isn't inherently bad of course, if that needs saying. Don't drink the cleaning spray and you'll be fine

My experience was that once you use something more stronger than water, you have to continue using that substance.

Alternately, whatever chemicals are in the marker ink will dissolve previous marks and leave the whiteboard surface intact. Just right over what was written before and it will melt

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