§ The Story
My duty is to faithfully pass on the knowledge of those greats before me — Newton, Einstein, Galileo, and every mind that lit the path — and make sure their message is never diluted. If I can make you love this half as much as I do, I did my job.
§ The Spark
Mr J. Pinder.
The one who lit it.
Kwinana Senior High School · 1982–1986
Every name in this story shaped a science. Mr Pinder shaped me. He taught maths the way it deserves to be taught — with patience, precision, and a contagious belief that every student could understand it if shown the right way.
He is the reason I stand at the front of a classroom today, and the standard I measure myself against every single lesson.
Every equation I write on the board, every concept I unpack — I am passing on what he gave to me.
§ Origin
I have a bad memory.
I still got 100% on my exams.
In 1989 I sat my first university maths exam and failed it. Badly. I was working full-time as an industrial chemist in oil refining and studying by correspondence — no classroom, no lecturer worth listening to, just me and the textbook. I was certain my bad memory had finally caught up with me.
I almost quit. Instead I rebuilt the way I studied from scratch. I stopped trying to memorise and started trying to understand — deeply enough that I could derive anything I had forgotten on the spot.
I finished the degree as the top mathematics student in Australia. Won two national awards. Got 100% on exams — not by remembering, but by understanding so deeply I couldn't get it wrong. That's what I teach. That's all I teach.
Still waiting for one to fall on my head.
— Newton, 1666 · me, every Tuesday
Galileo on the side table. Just in case.
Always a student first.
§ Classroom moments
A decade of teaching has taught me one thing: students remember the lesson where they laughed. So yes — Pikachu is in the room when we do the Standard Model, and the mole has a turtle for a mascot. Fight me.
"Minus b, plus or minus…"
Year 11, week 1. The formula that pays the bills.
Pikachu, witness to the Higgs boson.
It gives mass to particles. Pikachu gives vibes.
A mole. Obviously.
6.022 × 10²³ of them, if you're being pedantic.
§ Reading with the giants
Lunch with Galileo. He's quiet company.
Perth CBD · between lessons
First edition, 1949. Albert signed it himself.*
*He didn't. But a man can dream.
A note from the desk
"Don't wait until you're ready — you never will be. Just start. Then get better."
— Juan, The Prof
§ My Heroes
Twelve years of relentless pursuit doesn't come from nowhere. These are the minds that shaped mine — the curiosity, courage and clarity I carry into every lesson.
Hero · 01
1643 – 1727 · England
Mathematics & Physics
Three laws of motion, universal gravitation, the invention of calculus, the decomposition of white light. The Principia (1687) is arguably the most important scientific book ever written.
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Hero · 02
1879 – 1955 · German-born
Theoretical Physics
In one year (1905) he reshaped physics: the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, E = mc². A decade later, general relativity reimagined gravity as the curvature of spacetime.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Hero · 03
1564 – 1642 · Italy
Astronomy & Physics
Father of modern science. Champion of the experimental method and the Sun-centred model. He chose truth over comfort and changed humanity's view of its place in the cosmos.
"And yet it moves."
Hero · 04
1831 – 1879 · Scotland
Mathematical Physics
Unified electricity, magnetism and light into four equations — the second great unification in physics after Newton. Predicted that electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light.
"The only laws of matter are those which our minds must fabricate."
Hero · 05
1858 – 1947 · Germany
Quantum Theory
In 1900, solving the black-body problem, he reluctantly proposed that energy comes in discrete packets — quanta. A single act of intellectual courage that gave birth to quantum mechanics.
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
Hero · 06
1856 – 1943 · Serbian-American
Electrical Engineering
Invented the AC induction motor and the polyphase system that powers the modern world. Pioneered wireless transmission, fluorescent lighting and early radio. Nearly 300 patents.
"The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine."
Hero · 07
c. 570 – c. 495 BC · Ancient Greece
Mathematics & Philosophy
The first proof most students ever encounter. He discovered the mathematical ratios behind musical harmony and championed the radical idea that number is the underlying principle of all reality.
"Number rules the universe."
Hero · 08
c. 287 – c. 212 BC · Syracuse
Mathematics & Engineering
The greatest mathematician of antiquity. He calculated π with stunning precision, derived the volume of a sphere, and laid foundations of calculus nearly two thousand years before Newton.
"Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth."
Hero · 09 — the one who lit the spark
Kwinana Senior High School · 1982–1986
Every name above shaped a science. Mr Pinder shaped me. He taught maths with patience, precision, and a contagious belief that every student could understand it if shown the right way.
"Every equation I write on the board, every concept I unpack — I am passing on what he gave to me."
§ Why this exists
I'm not here to look impressive. I have an inferiority complex — I never think I know enough. That's kept me improving for over a decade. It means I never stop asking how to explain something better, how to help a student see it more clearly, how to close the gap between confused and certain.
The AI isn't pretending to be a tutor. It is how I tutor — built from a decade of sessions with students who averaged a 96 ATAR and went on to study medicine, dentistry, law and engineering at Australia's top universities.
§ The graduation
Yes, the cap still fits.
Worn proudly. Slightly crooked. On purpose.
Here. This one's for you.
The whole point of the job.
An apple for the teacher? Returned with interest.
Compound, naturally.
Walking to the next lesson. There's always a next lesson.
Calm before the exam.