MIT Prof. Hartley Rogers, Jr. Quotes

MIT Prof. Hartley Rogers, Jr. Quotes

Hartley Rogers was my professor for 18.02 (Calculus 2) in the fall of 1981. Twenty years later he was still uttering bon mots in 26-100, and student Stephen Lee collected them from Prof. Rogers's 18.022 lectures in the fall of 2001.

"The rotational derivative is a measure of the shwirliness at a point."

"This integral is beseeching me to use what? ... Polar coordinates!"

"Vacation! That's what we've been having for the last four lectures since we've been doing linear algebra. And it's eeeasy!"

"I wouldn't memorize the formulas...I couldn't! Well, I haven't tried. I always underestimate myself."