And oh, that look ruins him. Laertes feels a fondness so keen that it approaches anguish; he barely remembers to take his vegetables off the flame before they begin to burn. "Hast thou a head for numbers?" he asks. "I find that astronomy and physics require many calculations, as they reach greater complexity--and some of the mathematics in them were developed after my time. I've whiled away many a night struggling to grasp the principles of calculus."