# Age



## MoonlightSonata

Hullo!
I'll try not to be impertinent here, but I'm curious to find out what the average age of the members here is. In every single concert I've attended, the default hair colour is grey, so I wanted to find out if the same applies for this forum. 
The votes are anonymous!
Thank you for voting (if you do, that is).


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## Ingélou

This question has been raised before - but so many threads are rerun, and very nice it is too. The default colour is not grey here, though. I think you'll find it's quite split. There are very many college students, and also the older retired mob, and some in between too. Some years ago Ukko split the Forum into 'whippersnappers' and 'geezers'. I would belong in the 'geezer' category, but in my own case I'd prefer 'biddy'.


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## ptr

I've aged about 37½ years since starting to read the OP...

/ptr


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## MoonlightSonata

Ingélou said:


> This question has been raised before - but so many threads are rerun, and very nice it is too.


Oh dear, I seem to have a talent for asking questions that have been asked before. Sorry.


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## Andreas

MoonlightSonata said:


> Oh dear, I seem to have a talent for asking questions that have been asked before. Sorry.


Yes, but provided it was long enough ago, many members may have moved to a different age group by now.


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## Kopachris

MoonlightSonata said:


> Oh dear, I seem to have a talent for asking questions that have been asked before. Sorry.


On the other hand, ages change from year to year. 

I just turned 21 a bit over a month ago, and have since had great fun sampling a wide variety of alcoholic beverages.


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## Ingélou

MoonlightSonata said:


> Oh dear, I seem to have a talent for asking questions that have been asked before. Sorry.


Not at all! Taggart (my spouse) actually thinks the composition may have changed a little since the question was last raised. Before, I think the whippersnappers predominated - but the average age may be a little older now. Anyway, it will be fun to find out, and it's already been fun reading all the joky posts.


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## Taggart

Trouble is, a lot of the older members see a poll  and veer away. So all you get is the younger ones jumping in. What is known as a biased sample.


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## Ingélou

Voting is anonymous, so at least you don't get the problem of older people not wanting to reveal their age. Women especially are very mysterious. I am not, simply because I like to talk about my experiences and my age would quickly become apparent anyway. Also, my granny was six years older than grandad - they'd been engaged for six years when they married at the ages of thirty and twenty-four, after he came back from WWI. She was very sensitive about this, and would head off any not-so-innocent inquiries from her grandchildren. She only owned up once she was well into her nineties. I just don't think I could be bothered with all that mystery.


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## Art Rock

57 and no need to hide it.


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## Guest

Today, I am younger than the age at which Beethoven died and older than that of Mozart's demise. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to completing my Ninth Symphony in D-flat minor, which I have only just realized I had never even thought about til just now.


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## SixFootScowl

MoonlightSonata said:


> Hullo!
> In every single concert I've attended, the default hair colour is grey, so I wanted to find out if the same applies for this forum.


I have been dying my hair grey so as not to stand out from the crowd at concerts.


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## hpowders

Florestan said:


> I have been dying my hair grey so as not to stand out from the crowd at concerts.


Me too and it works!!


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## violadude

I turn 23 this October.


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## Andreas

Florestan said:


> I have been dying my hair grey so as not to stand out from the crowd at concerts.


And I get to wear my plaid tweed jackets and feel totally in fashion for a change.


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## hpowders

I may sue the manufacturer of the dye. It won't wash out.


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## hpowders

By the way, my TC friends can see my profile picture and have some idea of whom they are dealing with-looks...age...sex...sex-appeal, sponge-worthiness...etc.


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## violadude

hpowders said:


> By the way, my TC friends can see my profile picture and have some idea of whom they are dealing with-looks...age...sex.


You look like Aaron Copland?


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## hpowders

violadude said:


> You look like Aaron Copland?


No. That's my avatar photo, though he and I are probably a good match for "musical sensitivity".


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## hpowders

Well, the dye works. Went to the social security office and nobody stared. The waiting room music was distinctly non-classical.


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## hpowders

To give you some idea, I am older than Mozart when he died and younger than an average-aged Muir Woods California Redwood tree.


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## Headphone Hermit

Taggart said:


> Trouble is, a lot of the older members see a poll  and veer away. So all you get is the younger ones jumping in. What is known as a biased sample.


or get bored answering the same poll as a couple of months ago!


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## brianvds

Kopachris said:


> I just turned 21 a bit over a month ago, and have since had great fun sampling a wide variety of alcoholic beverages.


There's classical music for that too...


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## Manxfeeder

MoonlightSonata said:


> Hullo! In every single concert I've attended, the default hair colour is grey.


What's that old statement? All cats are grey in the dark. They were referring to classical concerts, right?


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## brianvds

Art Rock said:


> 57 and no need to hide it.


If you were Beethoven you'd be freshly dead.


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## Taggart

Headphone Hermit said:


> or get bored answering the same poll as a couple of months ago!


Last one ran from 2011 through January 2014. So that's more than a couple of months ago.

We get gems like (old)



Kopachris said:


> I just turned 18.


and (new)



Kopachris said:


> On the other hand, ages change from year to year.
> 
> I just turned 21 a bit over a month ago, and have since had great fun sampling a wide variety of alcoholic beverages.


Absolutely true.


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## Morimur

violadude said:


> I turn 23 this October.


Ha-ha! You're getting old.


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## Tristan

I recently turned 18 in July, so I could still be considered a "whippersnapper" 

When I would go to classical concerts as a teen, I often felt like I was the youngest one there. It still seems that way sometimes  And there are young musicians, but I'm one of the few "just fans" around my age.


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## Cheyenne

I have grown but a year older since I last voted -- I am 17. Time flows too fast. Ah! how fast those years run that hurry us away from our last fond dream of bliss! I started in life with the French Revolution, and I have lived, alas! to see the end of it. But I did not foresee this result. My sun arose with the first dawn of liberty, and I did not think how soon both must set. Since then, I confess, I have no longer felt myself young, for with that my hopes fell. My final hopes of happiness and of human liberty were blighted nearly at the same time; and since then I have had no pleasure in anything.

Whoops, sorry. I channeled the spirit of Hazlitt there. What I meant was -- I am doing well, enjoying youth. Someone joked to me today that she "almost deliberately wasted away her youth" so that she could "peak later in life" thereby sparing herself "the torture of growing old and weary". She is perhaps wiser than she realizes.

I had an uncle like Hazlitt, who could not help but feel that his hopes of happiness were forever crushed after his youth. "And how much better to die in all the happy period of disillusioned youth, to go out in a blaze of light, than to have your body worn out and old and illusions shattered." -- that's Hemingway, but it sounds like my uncle. He is no more -- he has been relieved of his pain. Nostalgia scares me a little. There are those among my peers -- women all, craving for a lost innocence -- who already sound like Wordsworth --

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight;
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower​
Yet -- yet they will try. I have been spared their intense cravings. My childhood was short, and its content desultory -- I have no choice but to live forward. There is no golden age to recollect! I pity those who only live backwards. --

But enough of this. I apologize -- the subject interests me. I will be happy as long as I don't join the chorus of people who

sigh that one thing only has been lent
To youth and age in common-discontent.​


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## mirepoix

I'm 49 years old. And that's almost the same number as my resting heart rate about half an hour after working out with my girlfriend. 
As for the colour of my hair, the little that remains is grey. I started going bald when I was 21/22 and have been shaving my head since then.
Unsolicited advice: forget the numbers (all of them) and just enjoy living as much as you can.


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## satoru

The poll is interesting. I belong to the largest age group, 51-60 (I'm 53, so has more years to stay in this group. ha!). It's highly encouraging to see that the second largest age group is 21-30 (tied with 61-70 now), with significant number of the members are in 11-20 group. The brain is still growing in those members, and surely music will contribute to the growth pattern! 

Oh, by the way, I'm grey like our cat shown here...


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## Tristan

^I like to think that. I'd like to think some good can come from being introduced to classical music at age 2


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## KenOC

Taggart said:


> Last one ran from 2011 through January 2014. So that's more than a couple of months ago.


Actually the last one started May 29 of this year, just over three months ago.

http://www.talkclassical.com/32390-whats-your-age-i-6.html


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## DiesIraeCX

28, I'm a whippersnapper.


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## aleazk

11010 .


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## hpowders

DiesIraeVIX said:


> 28, I'm a whippersnapper.


You write like you're 32.


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## Krummhorn

66 and darn proud of it . My advanced age isn't my fault - my parents determined that about 9 months before I was born :lol:.



MoonlightSonata said:


> . . . In every single concert I've attended, the default hair colour is grey, . . .


We are all wearing our powdered wigs 

Kh ♫


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## hpowders

I was a teacher for many years and exposure to so much chalk dust, had something to do with changing my hair color.


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## MoonlightSonata

Florestan said:


> I have been dying my hair grey so as not to stand out from the crowd at concerts.


That's a good idea, never thought of that.
I think it might look a bit strange on some of the younger members of this forum, though...


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## SeptimalTritone

aleazk said:


> 11010 .


OK Mr. nerd I'm one year younger than the eighth Fibonacci number. When I reach the eighth Fibonacci number proper next year... I don't think I'm going to go on a drinking spree or whatever the kids do these days. I'm probably going to go to an Indian restaurant and have a Gatorade or something.


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## Guest

aleazk said:


> 11010 .


11010 ? Good Lord, Aleazk, you must have seen the founding of Jericho ! (It must be that, 'coz I can't work out binary numbers.)


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## Levanda

Vow we got somebody who is 91 or over, glad to hear about that. Well I am 47 and my brain already is frying not sure if I got until 91.


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## hpowders

What did you say??? I'm 91 and can hardly hear you....


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## hpowders

In the war of 1812, we sure could have used that Tchaikovsky Overture!


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## Blake

24. Young, handsome, vital, intelligent... I'll probably stay like this forever.


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## hpowders

Is this the absolute best of all the age threads? _I ask for a reason._


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## SimonNZ

............................


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## Vaneyes

OPie, you should be able to guess my age within a year or two via my avatar.


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## hpowders

^^^Flex your knees!!!


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## SixFootScowl

If only I had been born on February 29th. Then I would be only 14 leap years old!


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## Giordano

Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure.
This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again,
and fillest it ever with fresh life.
This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales,
and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.
At the immortal touch of thy hands
my little heart loses its limits in joy
and gives birth to utterance ineffable.
Thy infinite gifts come to me
only on these very small hands of mine.
Ages pass, and still thou pourest,
and still there is room to fill.

from Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore


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## hpowders

Taggart said:


> Trouble is, a lot of the older members see a poll  and veer away. So all you get is the younger ones jumping in. What is known as a biased sample.


I saw this poll, quickly veered away and my back went out. Nothing 6 months of physical therapy won't fix.


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## Antiquarian

I'm in my mid-Forties. But since I've never been married, and never had children, everyone pegs me at between twenty-five and thirty, which is the arithmetic mean between my actual age and my mental age. As for my hair; it is still red, but no longer shockingly so. When I was young it was the colour of fire but now has dulled to a more acceptable Venetian red.


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## Jos

hpowders said:


> By the way, my TC friends can see my profile picture and have some idea of whom they are dealing with-looks...age...sex...sex-appeal, sponge-worthiness...etc.


:lol::lol:
I somehow knew you are a Seinfeld-fan.....
Hopefully comedy central will do a rerun soon.






I'm 49 btw, full head of hair, starting to turn grey nicely and recently cut to look like Herbert von K.

cheers,
Jos


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## hpowders

Jos said:


> :lol::lol:
> I somehow knew you are a Seinfeld-fan.....
> Hopefully comedy central will do a rerun soon.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm 49 btw, full head of hair, starting to turn grey nicely and recently cut to look like Herbert von K.
> 
> cheers,
> Jos


49's a good age. I vaguely remember it.

Every night before bed, I get on my knees and pray for a Seinfeld reunion show or new series. They were the best!


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## Guest

I knew I was right about Aleazk being an ancient +11010 years old; not only did he witness the founding of Jericho, he was also on the scene when he used to hunt this creature in the southern part of his country:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/...und-patagonia-argentina-dreadnoughtus-schrani


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## Headphone Hermit

Jos said:


> I'm 49 btw, full head of hair, starting to turn grey nicely and *recently cut to look like Herbert von K*.


you would *choose* to look like that?


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## clara s

hpowders said:


> In the war of 1812, we sure could have used that Tchaikovsky Overture!


where did you fiiiiiiiiight?

in the Great Laaaaaakes or the Southern Staaaaaaates? hahaha


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## hpowders

clara s said:


> where did you fiiiiiiiiight?
> 
> in the Great Laaaaaakes or the Southern Staaaaaaates? hahaha


No more fighting. I am currently a pacifist. I eat. I drink. I make merry. I don't bother anyone.

However, touch my CD's of Pettersson symphonies, clara s, then I cannot be responsible for your safety. :tiphat:


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## Jos

Headphone Hermit said:


> you would *choose* to look like that?


Heh, just his hair....

I should be more careful which elpeecover I keep in the livingroom.....(featured in current listening recently, Mozart/Haydn symphonies)
My wife thinks HvK looked pretty cool on that cover from 1963. A sort of old-school masculinity...(her words)
Who am I to argue, I aim to please her; and a haircut are easy bonuspoints...

cheers,
Jos


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## hpowders

Ingélou said:


> Voting is anonymous, so at least you don't get the problem of older people not wanting to reveal their age. Women especially are very mysterious. I am not, simply because I like to talk about my experiences and my age would quickly become apparent anyway. Also, my granny was six years older than grandad - they'd been engaged for six years when they married at the ages of thirty and twenty-four, after he came back from WWI. She was very sensitive about this, and would head off any not-so-innocent inquiries from her grandchildren. She only owned up once she was well into her nineties. I just don't think I could be bothered with all that mystery.


What did you say? Speak up Dearie!!! A little less noise here!!! Hey you!! Get off my ------ lawn!!!!


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## clavichorder

I am 22. There is some doubt in my mind as to whether I am still a qualified whippersnapper, so I must have my WQ re-evaluated.


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## Badinerie

Dont _tell_ them to get off your lawn...just turn the sprinklers on.

I'll be 55 on the 31'st (110111 to our binary bretheren)
Id like to say I dont feel any different than I did at 11010, but If I felt like this at age 26 I would have been Very worried.


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## Badinerie

clavichorder said:


> I am 22. There is some doubt in my mind as to whether I am still a qualified whippersnapper, so I must have my WQ re-evaluated.


If your whip still snaps...your qualified!


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## Vaneyes

Non-applicable.


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## MoonlightSonata

SeptimalTritone said:


> OK Mr. nerd I'm one year younger than the eighth Fibonacci number. When I reach the eighth Fibonacci number proper next year... I don't think I'm going to go on a drinking spree or whatever the kids do these days. I'm probably going to go to an Indian restaurant and have a Gatorade or something.


My age is a prime number, but not a Mersenne prime.
It is also a Fibonacci number.


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## PetrB

Florestan said:


> I have been dying my hair grey so as not to stand out from the crowd at concerts.


Or you're just a hipster, using the blend in at the concerts as an excuse...


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## PetrB

Badinerie said:


> If your whip still snaps...your qualified!


If you reflexively use 'you're' for "you're qualified," you're probably no longer a whippersnapper!
Then again, maybe your a whippersnapper


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## Vaneyes

MoonlightSonata said:


> My age is a prime number, but not a Mersenne prime.
> It is also a Fibonacci number.


Your age is 13 or 89.


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## MoonlightSonata

Vaneyes said:


> Your age is 13 or 89.


Yes, Indeed it is!
(I wasn't sure whether anyone would bother to work that out or not...)


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## SeptimalTritone

MoonlightSonata said:


> Yes, Indeed it is!
> (I wasn't sure whether anyone would bother to work that out or not...)


And you know like 10 times more math than a Caltech student already :tiphat:


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## MoonlightSonata

SeptimalTritone said:


> And you know like 10 times more math than a Caltech student already :tiphat:


That's because I'm rather unusual, to say the least


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## SeptimalTritone

MoonlightSonata said:


> That's because I'm rather unusual, to say the least


Excellent! It's always good to be ahead in math at an early age. It makes your whole life enriching and engaging 

I do hope that when you get older and apply to colleges, that you apply to some in the U.S., including Caltech!!! Yes, I must send out propaganda


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## MoonlightSonata

SeptimalTritone said:


> Excellent! It's always good to be ahead in math at an early age. It makes your whole life enriching and engaging
> 
> I do hope that when you get older and apply to colleges, that you apply to some in the U.S., including Caltech!!! Yes, I must send out propaganda


Numbers don't lie, people do. Numbers are very trustworthy.
I'm afraid I shall probably be applying for one in New Zealand, or maybe England. Good propaganda, though.
(Incidentally, why did you assume I was 13 and not 89? I suppose it would be quite obvious. I never stated which one, though.)


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## SeptimalTritone

MoonlightSonata said:


> (Incidentally, why did you assume I was 13 and not 89? I suppose it would be quite obvious. I never stated which one, though.)


LOL you're going to be a good mathematician when you grow up.


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## SeptimalTritone

In other words, a true mathematician never makes an assumption that cannot be rigorously justified, ever.

On the other hand, sometimes the most "trustworthy" stuff is beyond the numbers and the rigour. I would encourage you to read this short little article (by a grown up prodigy) on mathematical rigour


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## aleazk

In the 18th century and part of the 19th century, most of the mathematical research by professional mathematicians was done by methods that we would consider quite sloppy and unrigorous by modern standards ('differentials', 'infinite sums', 'variations', and many other things). The 'rigour wave' started in the 19th century with guys like Cauchy, Weierstrass and Bolzano. They gave to calculus its modern solid foundation, including the epsilon-delta definition for limits. At the beginning of the 20th century, the very hard core notion of rigour that we have today in modern mathematics was crystallized by people like Hilbert.

Nevertheless, in fields like physics (my field), the story is very different! Often, physicists have to develop mathematical tools by their own in order to explain what nature seems to require. Of course, this is done intuitively and in an unrigorous fashion. Only years later, or even decades, mathematicians jump in and give to the concepts a solid, rigorous foundation.

There's a very funny anecdote in which von Neumann (one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the 20th century, whose most important work in physics was a very rigorous and fundamental mathematical formalization of quantum mechanics) says to Heisenberg "_thanks to you and your discovery of quantum mechanics, I was able to discover the difference between a self-adjoint operator and one which is only merely symmetric, and, of course, the importance that this has in quantum mechanics_". Heisenberg, a pure physicist, answered "_what's a symmetric operator?_".

Even in modern physics, and particularly in modern Quantum Field Theory, there's a lot of very important things in the standard theory that lack a rigorous definition (e.g., the measures in the path integrals, and a big etc.) Nevertheless, physicists make mathematical jugglings with these little ill-defined monsters and manage to obtain meaningful physical predictions from this mess. Astonishingly, these predictions have been proven to be very accurate in the experiments.


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## aleazk

SeptimalTritone said:


> I do hope that when you get older and apply to colleges, that you apply to some in the U.S., including Caltech!!! Yes, I must send out propaganda


LOL that's what I call tact...


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## TurnaboutVox

MoonlightSonata said:


> That's because I'm rather unusual, to say the least


Oho, intriguing. Why are you 'rather unusual, to say the least'? Apart from being a 13 year old CM fan and a mathematician, that is?


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## aleazk

The unusual secret in @MoonlightSonata's backyard revealed!


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## Couac Addict

I just cut myself in half and counted 34 rings. If my memories of science class serve me correctly, it means that I need an ambulance.


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## SeptimalTritone

aleazk said:


> Even in modern physics, and particularly in modern Quantum Field Theory, there's a lot of very important things in the standard theory that lack a rigorous definition (e.g., the measures in the path integrals, and a big etc.) Nevertheless, physicists make mathematical jugglings with these little ill-defined monsters and manage to obtain meaningful physical predictions from this mess. Astonishingly, these predictions have been proven to be very accurate in the experiments.


Dude, thank God we don't have to rigorously justify ultraviolet cutoff and renormalization to get the magnetic moment of the electron (i.e. accurate experimental result).

Sloppy calculus for life


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## SeptimalTritone

But actually aleazk, I had this Isaac Asimov article more in mind, which has importance beyond the rigours of quantum operators.

The article answers MoonlightSonata's grand question: how did I know he was 13 and not 89?


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## Triplets

Ingélou said:


> Voting is anonymous, so at least you don't get the problem of older people not wanting to reveal their age. Women especially are very mysterious. I am not, simply because I like to talk about my experiences and my age would quickly become apparent anyway. Also, my granny was six years older than grandad - they'd been engaged for six years when they married at the ages of thirty and twenty-four, after he came back from WWI. She was very sensitive about this, and would head off any not-so-innocent inquiries from her grandchildren. She only owned up once she was well into her nineties. I just don't think I could be bothered with all that mystery.


 I am 57 in a few months. My wife preceeded me to this age by six months and for half a year, I never let her forget it.
The poll suggests the average age of the respondents is younger than the average age of Concerts that I attend. Taggert thought the geezers would be scared off but the OP did make the votes anonymous. I think the reason is that younger people are more inclined to be on line, in social media, etc, and therefore more likely to be represented in an Internet Forum.


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## MoonlightSonata

aleazk said:


> The unusual secret in @MoonlightSonata's backyard revealed!


At least you haven't found my Raff dog.


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## aleazk

SeptimalTritone said:


> Dude, thank God we don't have to rigorously justify ultraviolet cutoff and renormalization to get the magnetic moment of the electron (i.e. accurate experimental result).
> 
> Sloppy calculus for life


-"_Infinities? just subtract them!..._"










(this 'subtraction' thingy can be made more rigorous, though, we are not _that_ disastrous!)


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## aleazk

SeptimalTritone said:


> But actually aleazk, I had this Isaac Asimov article more in mind, which has importance beyond the rigours of quantum operators.
> 
> The article answers MoonlightSonata's grand question: how did I know he was 13 and not 89?


Oh, I see. Yes, Asimov is quite right there, and what he says is the obvious answer that those post-modern relativists and extreme Kuhnians refuse to see.


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## Guest

I'm 31 in hexadecimal, approaching the big 3 2 !!


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## Guest

MoonlightSonata said:


> Incidentally, why did you assume I was 13 and not 89? I suppose it would be quite obvious. I never stated which one, though.


Bayesian probability.


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## HaydnBearstheClock

TalkingHead said:


> Today, I am younger than the age at which Beethoven died and older than that of Mozart's demise. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to completing my Ninth Symphony in D-flat minor, which I have only just realized I had never even thought about til just now.


oo, D-Flat minor, come to think of it, I've never heard a piece in that key. I'm waiting, TH.


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## Vaneyes

aleazk said:


> The unusual secret in @MoonlightSonata's backyard revealed!


Let's not forget aimee's backyard.


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