Dr. L!m... Respek wei...

And no, I didn't spell his name wrongly. Technically, its wrong (his real name is Lim.. duh) , but if he himself signs off that way in MMLS, then I don't suppose he would mind putting his name that way.

So, who is this Dr. Lim dude? He's my new dynamics lecturer. And he's brilliant. So far. The one hour class I had with him today was by far the most fun I've had in a lecture since I entered the faculty. He's about the most relaxed lecturer I've ever had, and he tells stories. Stories that actually relate to dynamics. Apparently, the British army got screwed at the Falkland islands because they got all their math wrong. In his words, they studied their projectile motion properly, but forgot all about some other force that causes all their bombs to miss. Its got something to do with being on different hemispheres, apparently. I'll have to go look it up.

Then he rubbised the urban legend that water spirials down in different directions on different hemispheres. The mass of the water involved just isn't large enough to be affected by the force, do it has more to do with sinkhole design than anything.

When he started teaching, he told us that he didn't believe in using powerpoint slides to teach beginners like us. I wanted to hug the man there and then. The other FET lecturers should learn a thing or two from him. Teaching math based subjects requires a form af dynamism that cannot be provided by using powerpoint. Concepts need to be related, and you can't do that on a computer. The whiteboard really is the best way to teach this kind of thing.

Another thing, he also has the instinct that tells him what exactly you do not understand. The lecture was concise and to the point. No dilly dallying about the same idea forever. But I suppose the thing that I liked most about his was the casualness that he conducted his lecture. It felt like he was a pal, some dude you can actually ask questions and not get a frown for doing that. He said shit in class, which was a first for any of my lectures.

Sure, he has his quirks, but I can live with them. Its not very often you meet a doctor of philosophy that can still relate to an undergraduate in laymans' terms.