You just can’t, Nemo!

Tales from the Classroom 1 Minute

During in-class discussions, students often but inadvertently make the same mistakes over and over again… say, thinking that \sqrt{a^2+b^2} = a + b or \displaystyle \frac{d}{dx} (uv) = \displaystyle \frac{du}{dx} \cdot \frac{dv}{dx}. Naturally, such mistakes need to be corrected, but hopefully politely and in a memorable way.

After the third or fourth such repetition of the same mistake during a semester, I’ll try to lighten the mood by saying, “You think that you can do these things, but you just can’t, Nemo!”

Pop culture reference:

See also my one-liner about the Third Classic Blunder: https://meangreenmath.com/2013/06/07/laws-of-logarithms/

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Published by John Quintanilla

I'm a Professor of Mathematics and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas. For eight years, I was co-director of Teach North Texas, UNT's program for preparing secondary teachers of mathematics and science.

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One thought on “You just can’t, Nemo!”

  1. Pingback: Functions that commute (Part 2) | Mean Green Math

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