Another hazard of living in an engineer-led family is that dinner time conversation sometimes is not typical. I'm not saying it's bad, it's just not the usual. Laying aside the various interpretations that we can find for what is "cerebral" conversation, I will say it probably qualifies as "cerebral" - at times. Some examples:
- We had an entire conversation around the history and use of imaginary numbers. My wife (who, by the way, has a degree in Mathematics Education) pointed out that they are also known, or originally known, as "normal" numbers (because they are represented in a 2-dimensional graph as being normal, or at a right angle to, the real axis). I explained their usage in Fourier and Laplace transforms, one of the kids wondered who would even come up with such a thing, what was the origin, etc. It then transformed into jokes like, "Imaginary number? You mean, like my allowance? Ha ha ha". I then told of a friend (a fellow engineer) who created the following phone message: "You have reached an imaginary number. Please hang up, turn your phone 90 degrees, and dial again." We all had a hearty laugh over that one, then discussed amongst ourselves why we weren't the most popular kids at school (then or now).
- Our celebration of Pi day (March 14th - you know, 3/14?). My son announced he was entering a competition at school to memorize the most digits of pi (the prize was, of course, a pie). His goal was over 250 (he got to 280, I think). He then spent dinner time reciting them, amidst the 'boos' and catcalls of the other children who had already heard his spiel earlier in the day. While I love my son, hearing 100 digits of pi over meatloaf is a little tiresome - but then, my whole point here is that it's probably (at least partially) my fault.
In the meantime - hug an engineer - or an engineer's child - they probably need it...
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