As the school year wound down we got closer and closer to our final exams. With introductory exams also being squeezed into our schedule, the final third of our year became extremely jam-packed and teachers rushed to cover all the necessary material. As a result for many of our classes we shared a classroom with other seniors in order to utilize both periods for both classes and hence tackle twice as many topics.

While we had learned differentiation the previous year, integration was only introduced during a compact 3rd marking period. As Mr. Ghamisi surveyed the 60+ students before him, he explained that what we were about to face was the exact opposite of differentiation. “You all know how to find the derivative of a function,” he started. “Now you’ll be given a derivative and you’ll find what the original function was.

“Your book is kind of confusing. In some parts of it they refer to the original functions as antiderivatives while in other parts they call them indefinite integrals. Even though these are two different names but they actually refer to the exact same thing. It’s like these hicks whose names back in their village is Hasan Ali Jafar but as soon as they set foot in Tehran they demand that they be called Zizi.”

He waited for our laughter to die down before adding, “Well I know Hasan Ali Jafar probably isn’t today’s most popular name but still that’s no reason to go to such extremes.”