Bill Shillito - now at 🦋

Math instructor at @OglethorpeUniv, PhD student at @GeorgiaStateU.

He/him. Pronounced SHILL-lit-toe.

I like to divide by zero.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

Apparently things get throttled if I mention the name of the 🦋 site. So yeah, I'm there now. Like this if you can actually see it ... and then come join us! Look for "solidangles" there.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

I can't promise I'll be active yet — this is a REALLY rough semester and I'm just trying to pass my classes, write my dissertation, and make it across the finish line. But I miss talking math with people, and I hope to do more of that in the future in a non-toxic environment.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

Hey everyone, I'm still here. I've been busy as hell with my PhD program (it's the last year!), and I haven't had energy to do much on social media. But I think this election is the impetus I've needed to finally make the jump to bluesky. Find me on there if you'd like!

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@howie_hua 36 * 14 = (25 + 11)(25 - 11) = 25^2 - 11^2 = 625 - 121 = 504

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

So, uh, wow, writing a dissertation prospectus is terrifying.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@LukeSelfwalker Glad you enjoyed it! I really need to get back into making math videos once I finish grad school. 😅

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

For real! 💯
🌐 https://t.co/leSsDUnQAd

[Michael Pershan @mpershan]

Oh thank god.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@TonyTheLion2500 Some people just like to be jerks on the internet. I was going to give more explanation but really that sums it up.

Did you ever get your question answered?

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@Desmos When will this be able to take the nth derivative of a function? Would really help with showing arbitrary Taylor series...

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@LoveDYaun NUMBER ONE IN TOKYO

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@the_phyrexian @CubeApril (Also, it took me WAY too long to parse which choice that corresponds to, since ⊃ means superset, not subset…)

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@the_phyrexian @CubeApril Arithmetic is a subset of mathematics.

An important but extremely small one. 😜

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@TonyTheLion2500 @Osk9990 When you refine an existing partition of [a,b], you're subdividing the intervals you already have instead of just re-dividing it haphazardly into more pieces.

It makes sure that your approximation of the "true area" keeps getting better (or at least never gets worse).

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@Iilstinky @lilchiva @TonyTheLion2500 I'm not sure that saying this while presenting a GIF that does not in fact demonstrate a refinement of a partition is really sending the message you were intending here.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@LoveDYaun BIG BOSS TO THE TOP
SUPER SUPER FLY HIGH

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@NoahNCopeland I haven’t used GameMaker in a loooong time — what’re the details here?

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@Mathowitz @numericalguy @mpershan The direct instruction fans act like inquiry-based learning is just throwing students in the deep end with zero guidance.

The inquiry-based learning fans act like direct instruction is just lecturing for an hour straight with zero interaction.

There HAS to be middle ground.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@Mathowitz @numericalguy @mpershan Regarding "I don't think anybody is arguing otherwise" ... I dunno, with all the math ed discussion I've seen on Twitter these days, it's EXTREMELY polarized. Each side caricatures the other's approach, and I've felt somewhat alienated as someone who wants do a balance of both.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@Mathowitz @numericalguy @mpershan Example: I just got done taking an Advanced Matrix Analysis course as part of my PhD program. Singular value decomposition didn’t really click until I buckled down, wrote out a 3x3 matrix with actual numbers in it, and went through the calculation.

[Bill Shillito - now at 🦋 @solidangles]

@Mathowitz @numericalguy @mpershan I think that’s different for each person though. For me the concept often doesn’t make sense until I’ve run through an example a few times and gotten a good computational feel for it. That’s when the concept clicks, and if I’m stuck on the concept I’ll go back to the procedure.