Introduction

The purpose of these notes is to explain what I do. Hopefully it will be accessible to any reader willing to think a bit and with a basic mathematics education that includes high school algebra. Let me know if it does not accomplish this goal. Before we get started I want to make a note about variables and symbols. I am not planning on using a lot of equations or even symbols, but I do not plan to shy away from them either. In Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time," which is aimed, I believe, at a similar class of readers, Hawking says that he will not use any equations at all because he thinks it will scare people off. Personally, I think that the whole point of equations is that they make things easier. That's why mathematicians, engineers, and scientists use them! Now we often get carried away because we use them so much and the average person does not use them so much. But that does not mean that you can't find them useful too. Mathematical expressions in symbols allow us to be more precise without having to write volumes. I hope that those of you not use to using equations will not find this daunting and those of you who are will be able to understand everything quite precisely with the aid of some equations.