9/11/04

A student writes:

       I was just wondering what the light bulbs in the book
       meant. Are they information that we should really get to know?
       I did not see anywhere in the book that stated what they meant.

       << name withheld since the student is in the dark >>

Oops! I thought we mentioned that in the preface. But, we did not. Shame on us. You have to go back to the Preface to the original edition, page xx in your book to find the light bulb explanation. (Yeah, I know. Expect you to read that Preface? What was I thinking?)

And even then, the explanation is not really complete. What is really the case is that throughout the book, we felt there were points we wanted to highlight for some special reason, that is to call your attention to something because it provides a special insight. So, we decided to do this by sticking a lightbulb next to it in the margin. ...meaning: Read this twice.

Also, it looks like we did not explain in the Preface what the large question mark in the margin was all about either. Kind of like a lightbulb, we wanted you to think about some point to get the insight by yourself. So, we worded it like a question. So, we stuck a big question mark in the margin. If you can't figure it out for yourself, you are supposed to ask your TA or instructor. Someday, we will put a list of answers to the big question marks on the web site, ...if we ever find the time to get to it.

Thanks,

Yale Patt