Applied math

I step out of my office to fill my water bottle.  I see two students walking down the hall, one holding a shiny pair of brass knuckles down under an armful of books.  

"Hey, Mr. Kim, what are the dusters for?"

"The what?" he stops and turns to me.

"Those," I gesture to his hand, "where are you going with them."

He smiles shyly,  "Class."

"I don't think you'll need those." I say.

"It's an Applied Math class," he explains, "it gets a little rough."

I recall from when I was an undergrad at SFU taking a graduate seminar, that the word 'application' was taken tongue-in-cheek as a dirty word.  I understood that it was done with irony. There are interpretations of the word 'application'.  In pure math, the application of a technique or result is why it is interesting-  how it fits into understanding the central questions of a field.  For grants we use this interpretation of 'application'.

But there is applied math, and there is Applied math.

And Applied math does get a little hairy.  

"Ah, Applied." I concede.  "Maybe you could use this," I say, offering him my gun.