Remembering Ether

What can I say short enough for people to read?

  • Russ Ether was a master of the Socratic method, asking questions that lead you to the answer. Some times brutally.
  • He was merciless at cutting through the “how” and getting to the “what”. He didn’t care about what gears were needed, but focussed on the actual problem at hand.
  • He not only gave us the mathematical foundation for swerve, but for a wide variety of holonomic drive trains including those widely used in FTC.
  • His various quizzes challenged us all.
  • He was also generous with praise: I have never received a higher compliment in my life than his first sentence here : Math Quiz 11 - #13 by Ether
  • And this “quiz” question made me remember everything I ever knew about integration, and learn stuff I missed in grad school. Some of it came in handy a few months later. Math Quiz 9
  • My favorite of his quizzzes: Math Quiz 8 Difficult Diabolical, but solvable with even more basic tools than @Ether realized.
    –Gus
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