Week 8: 博士の愛した数式 - The Housekeeper and the Professor 🎓🧮

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1

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博士の愛した数式 - The Housekeeper and the Professor :graduation_cap::abacus: Home Thread

Week 8

hakase
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Start Date: Nov 7th
Previous Part: Week 7
Next Part: Week 9

Reading:

Week Start Date End Phrase End Page End Percentage Page Count
Week 8 Nov 7th [End Chapter 4] 118 40% 11

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2

I think there is a typo at least in the e-book version.
When the professor explains how to use two adjacent triangles to get the sum of the natural numbers from 1 to 4, the book gives the following diagram, which makes no sense:

4 4 4 4
+ + + +
1 1 1 1 
-------
5 5 5 5

whereas my German edition has the diagram

1 2 3 4
+ + + +
4 3 2 1
-------
5 5 5 5

which fits better to the figure of the two triangles (taking the sum in each row):

****/*
***/**
**/***
*/****
3

I would think it would be a lot more terrifying to find notes covered in blood, with one saying you can only remember things from the last 80 minutes. Memento vibes.

I’m not sure I 100% got the meaning of why Root was crying.

ママが博士を信用しなかったからだよ。博士に僕の世話は任せられないんじゃないかって、少しでも疑ったことが許せないんだ。
Is he broken up because she doubted the professor’s ability to take care of him, even though in the end it seemed to be warranted?

4

Was it warranted, though? Yes, 博士 overreacted in a major way, but clearly out of affection. I think Root is growing attached to him-- like a father figure-- and doesn’t want his mother looking down on his father figure.

The ending of the chapter is so, so sweet. What a charming book.

5

I second that. My paper copy looks like your German copy.

6

Oh, that’s good to know! Would you like to report it to BookWalker, @2000kanji? If not, then I‘ll do it, but I don’t want to „steal“ it from you.

7

You may go ahead, I don’t have a copyright on this discovery.
Thanks!