fun with undergrads

so i got roped into being a mentor for the directed reading program the department has been running since last summer. i'm working with the freshman who eric worked with last semester. since this is his 2nd semester in college he doesn't have much higher level math background but he has tons of enthusiasm (which makes him ideal for me since i can be excited and encourage him without having to study a ton to do so). he didn't even have a clue what combinatorics is walking in the room today, but we picked out an introductory book in the library and then i completely amazed him when i told him "pick an integer, any integer", and when he picked 57 i used the pigeonhole principle to show him that there's a multiple of 57 with only 0s and 1s in it. i think that made his day.

the kid is super excited about number theory after working with eric last semester, but i think i have a shot at convincing him that combinatorics is *at least* as cool as that. :)

heh.

summary: this ought to be a fun job to have, especially since the student i'll be working with seems so enthusaistic. so yay for that. :)

the end.