Last night students in Dr. Pruhdz’s infamously hard Math 690 seminar collapsed on their beds, limp with exhaustion, after they came across a new integral, the likes of which they had never before experienced. What was the slippery nature of this antiderivative? How had the smartest kids at school never before been confronted with ?e^x? Why was it so difficult for them to just, you know, do it? The entire student body is in awe of the nature of this complicated problem and rigidly waits to see if any solution shall come. Anne Oying ’16 teased, “It’s just turns out to be an e^x equation. What can be so difficult about that?” only to blush and shyly turn away because she realized she sounded like a know-it-all. Chastity D’Eniale ’15, the youngest in the her class, told The Exonian, “I feel so conflicted…I want to rise to the challenge ?e^x poses and figure out what it means to me, but I don’t know if I’m ready.” Matt Tress ’13 said figuring out ?e^x, “took a lot out of me.” Eugene Poindexter ’13 lamented, “I am just so confused by all the curves. I’ve never had such a problem with math before, but oh my, the antiderivative of e to the x just is not making sense. I really just wish ?e^x was more straightforward. How am I supposed to know where to begin, let alone know what to do!” His identical twin brother Milton interjected, “I’ve never seen anything like this before. What am I supposed to do with all those highs and lows? It’s nontrivial, yes, but I just can’t wrap my head around it.” The students in Math 690 have been given a week off to recuperate and will return to class next Thursday and figure out what they should do about ?e^x. When they come back to class, the students will discuss whether it is worth exploring, how can they do it better and mainly whether they should simply refrain from such activity. In the meantime, the faculty is debating whether or not showing images of ?e^x in Powerpoints is appropriate.
