studiot

Do I look old? I don't feel old. I don't feel anything at all until noon and then it's time for my nap ajb, my apologies for the humerous diversions. I consulted my trusty shorter Oxford, volume 1 and it had this to say mathematics probably after French "mathematiques". Originally treated as plural, frequently with the. The sciences or disciplines of the quadrivium, collectively. Later these and optics, architecture navigation etc. Now treated as singular The abstract deductive science of space, number, quantity, and arrangement Colloquial abbreviation maths (N America, Math) I think that basically covers everything discussed so far, and shows why the OED is so reliable.

Well I know that the fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was called Sir Cumference, becaue he ate too much pie.

Hello Derek, "It takes two to tango" Interactions require at least two particles or whatever. This thread is about an isolated electron or whatever. Depsite his unwillingness to accept comments by others, juanrga made many good points that should not be lightly dismissed.

I have held off this thread until now in the hope that it could develop in better spirit that in the previous one. Juan, everyone can be wrong. Even you can be wrong, as you undoubtedly are in this piece of basic mathematics, which I did not respond to before as I put down it to a language issue. If psi is not a variable it is either precisely zero or constant. There are no other available alternatives. A constant or zero psi is a pretty useless property to work with. Psi is a varaible, correctly known as the dependent variable [math]\Psi (x,t)[/math] of the independent variables x and t. You undoubtedly know a great deal but have you heard this old (English) saying? "Wise men suffer fools gladly" From your posts I gather you are some kind of lecturer or teacher (presumably at a university). I have never been a formal teacher, however I have often found that attempting to explain in simple terms to someone else (perhaps an assistant or non technical person) has improved my own knowledge of a subject. Rather than leave or shun humanity, join in and be welcome. Several here have offered pointers.