#Flimflam vignettes

[flimflamfandom]

Room Mates (vignette)

Ivy Pepper stared at the wall in her dorm room, and grumbled as she wiped the chalk off with cloth. “You’re lucky I took a picture of this, Helen, or my homework would be RUINED!”

“You’re lucky I even let you write up there in the first place!”

Ivy furiously scribbled down notes from her notebook, after VERY quickly getting some fi;m developed. She grumbled to herself as she worked. “Stupid Helen...bet she can’t even SPELL Nodal!”

Ivy had been working hard at a few problems her projective geometry teacher had given her, all to do with Self space dual curves. She HAD been working the math on the wall and writing the shapes onto graph lined paper. But Helen, the STODGY WENCH SHE WAS, had demanded she wash the wall off. So, she was back to work, trying to get her numbers down. 

Helen looked over her shoulder at her work. “That Y should be negative.” “I know it should be negative.” “Then why didn’t you write down that it was negative?” “Because I KNOW it’s supposed to be! You already bungled my process once!” “...is this really about that boy?” Ivy scoffed. “What? No. I don’t care WHAT you think about him. But I DO care that now I have to waste notebook pages like some sort of PHILISTINE!” “Yeesh, what is it with you and the chalk anyway!?” “The boys won’t let me into the workrooms! You know how boys are.” Ivy sighed. “Mathematics is a woman’s world and here they are, traipsing around like they own the place because every other science BeLoNgS to them.” She grumbled. “Makes me wanna hurl ‘em through a window.”

Helen shrugged. “I never knew anyone considered Math a girl thing.” “Sure, Emmy Noether?” “...who?” “The woman who figured out Commutative rings?” “...whats?” Ivy sighed, and opened up another sheet of notebook paper. “Commutative rings,” She said. “Are any ring in which multiplication is commutative.” She wrote a few things down. “So AB=BA for any B or A value.” “...You lost me at rings, actually, where do rings come in?” Helen turned her head to one side. “It’s a nonempty set with 2 operations and fulfilling certain requirements!” She began to write something down. “Here’s what you need for a ring.”

She hastily wrote, her tongue out, her eyes determined. Until she came up with...

1)  If a∈R and b∈R, then a⊕b∈R.

(2)  a⊕(b⊕c) = (a⊕b)⊕c

(3)  a⊕b=b⊕a

(4)  There is an element 0R in R such that a⊕0R=a , ∀a∈R .

(5) For each a ∈ R, the equation a⊕0R=a , ∀a∈R . a ⊕ x = 0R has a solution in R.

(6)  If a∈R, and b∈R, then ab∈R.

(7)  a⊗(b⊗c) = (a⊗b)⊗c.

(8)  a⊗(b⊕c) = (a⊗b)⊕(b⊗c)

...the rules for rings.

“...wow. That’s...a bit much, don’t you think?” “It’s not SO bad. It’s basic algebraic structuring, Helen! The building blocks of math!” “...sure it is.” Helen nodded slowly. “Oh, c’mon, don’t tell me you aren’t able to follow this! You’re smart as a whip!” “I look at stars and make charts out of them, Ivy. The math I know about is geometry and-” “Well, if it’s geometry you’re after, take a look at my homework!” “Not THAT sorta geometry!” Helen said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I need some fresh air...you math people are bonkers.” Ivy crossed her arms and looked as she left. “Well, sure, go on and leave us mathematicians for your scientific breakthroughs and easy headlines! But when you need to calculate the trajectory of an asteroid, DON’T COME CRYING TO ME!” “I won’t!” Helen waved. She shut the door. Ivy grumbled.

Later that night, Ivy was still hard at work, and Helen came back in, with a few things. Looked like a brown paper bag of things. She looked over. “Still working?” “Mhm.” “Damn...Professor Holly really IS a jerk, huh?” “Yeah...I work better on chalk.” She said. “I guess I just...visualize it better.” “...” Helen handed her a small chalkboard. “It’s not the wall. But it’s there.” She smiled. “I also got you a coke. It’ll help you finish.” “...” Ivy smiled, warmly. “Thanks, Helen...sorry about earlier.” “It’s no trouble...so, self space dual curves, huh?” “Yep.” “How do those work?” “...I’m glad you asked...”