Slashdot Mirror
Options for Adults with Renewed Interest in Math?
Internet Ninja asks: "After only doing mathematics in high school level and in my first year of University, I've suddenly developed an interest in mathematics. Since that was now almost 10 years ago I'm a little rusty. Anything past pythagoras is a little tough for me :) but I know I could get back up to speed quickly. I could probably steal my daughters math textbooks and start reading but I'm wondering if there is a better way. I considered a part-time University paper at US$495 each and you need to do two as bridging courses in order to even start on undergraduate courses. A bit pricey when you have a home and family to look after as well. Another option was a night courses but I'm kept pretty busy with work. Does anyone have any advice or good resources?"
amazon has lots of books and probably some on math go read like everyone else. How do you think the /. crowd gets up on the latest programming language? By running back to college? NO by reading and studying just go do it geesh
***I GOT NUTHIN***
Does this count?
You want to learn, right? That takes time, right? You won't have any more time if you do self-study in a book, you'll just have fewer resources to help you over the stumbling blocks.
community college -- cheap and laid-back courses that'll give you the background you want.
Yes, I realize you say you're busy with work, but some community colleges have a wide number of options for classes, or even open exit/open entry classes. You don't even need to take it for a grade, you can audit it and not feel too bad if you don't do well.
There's a great resource out there.. I'll give you one hint: Al Gore invented it. The Internet.
buy from B&N.
I know more than you drink.
2) If you don't have grey hairs, you can probably pass for a student with a little creative wardrobe work.
Given premises 1) and 2) above... well, do the math.
(The best part? You don't even have to show up for the exams!)
at www.doverpublishing.com. Their books are better and cheaper than most of the competition.
but here in the US I would take a community college course or two, they are WAY cheaper than the 'real' universities. (and just as good in my opinion, all the learning with none of the liberalism)
www.math.com has some good resources you might wanna investigate... bone up on the math and algebras then test into the undergrad courses, skipping the "bridging" courses at the University. If the bridging courses are really $495, that should save you a 1k or so...
"I could probably steal my daughters..."
To answer your question I need to know more about this... what grade is she in? How old is she?
Brunette, red head, blonde? Please, I would love to help you but you're not giving me much to go on...
dmarien
The Man Who Counter is a very good book to read and full of Mathematics. It is a good start if you're trying to think Mathematics, not just applying formulae.
I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
What are you planning to do with this education in Mathematics?
Do you want this for information's sake, or do you want to plan a career out of it?
These questions are important because if you are doing it for education's sake, the first time you look into a college-level Multivariable Calculus book might result in a little voice giving you a sudden desperate need to close the book and never open it again.
Course, if you plan to make a career out of it, the above situation will probably still occur, but you'll at least have a strong reason to ignore that little voice and give it a serious try.
-Matt
Damn, I messed up the link. That should have been this one instead. Sorry!
Personally, I was in a similar bind a few months ago. A co-worker was going to school for CIS and I read over his shoulder while he did his homework. More came back to me in those few months while watching him work and helping each other out than if I'd read the book by myself.
Learning works better with two people.
i reccommend What Is Mathematics by Courant, Robbins, Stewart. This covers just about everything in modern math until the 1940's or so (and the newer version have updated sections on Fermat's last theorem). Plus there's a blurb from Albert Einstein praising the book on the back. You can't ask for much more than that.
-BlueLines
--BlueLines "The cost of living hasn't affected it's popularity." -anonymous
hope that helps.
As Euclid said, "there is no royal road to mathematics". Go to university, take the courses they tell you to take, and expect to spend a lot of time and money.
Either that, or don't bother. Quite seriously, I doubt you'll be able to learn much whatever you do -- mathematics is a subject which people find incredibly hard to pick up late in life.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Look at the syllabus for courses at your favorite university web site. From there you can look up topics on the web or in books.
Why not just get a tutor? It would definitely be less expensive than actually going to school again. Also, you get the 1 on 1 atmosphere which is usually the best. I think anyone who actually 'wants' to take math is crazy, but whatever floats your boat
That is actually quite an interesting site, thanks.
Of course, a google search would reveal a lot more.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
This isn't completely what you want, but it is a very good reference site for mathematics, from the fine people who brought us Mathematica. And it's free, and as we all know, free is good.
-twb
Anything past pythagoras is a little tough for me :) but I know I could get back up to speed quickly.
:) Math will still be tough for you. Just don't try.
That's where you're wrong
Yes, people used to do this when I was at university. Most lecturers really don't care (nor even notice) who turns up for lectures. That said, if you're looking to refresh high school level maths, then an undergraduate course might be a bit over your head. It would definately be beyond me, and I use high school level math most days at work.
If you use Google.com you may find great deal of web-sites with great deal of information, and also there are many great math ebooks available online. And the resource that I use for all of my questions is this little chat on IRC (DALnet #math) they help me with all the problems that I come across with.
A lot of university professors post their tests or nots online.
Try google...
or go to the math dept.'s site and click on professors. You'll find something like this: LSU Prof's
From there you can get their personal sites that have tons of information.
This is how Passed Dif. Eq. Got most of the information from google and lots of different university's notes.
Make sure it's not just by reading posts in Slashdot about the Riemann Zeta Function and associated hypotheses...
Mathematics for the Million (ISBN 0-393-31071-X) Even Albert Einstein had good things to say of this book.
11*43+456^2
That didn't look like maths to me. Still, I would rate it +1 Interesting for the methodology and coding.
they have books that you can borrow and read -- and guess what? It's all FREE FREE FREE!!! All the knowledge you gain is yours to keep!
This is how I learn to program, and sprinkle in university courses as you have time / money. the internet is an awesome resource!
I remember about 10-15 years ago when some company was saying they were bringing the "Information superhighway." I thought yea right, but after I started using it, I have to agree.
People are always happy to share their knowledge for free even. Many are even school professors and book writers!
Though I'm not in the same situation as you, SOSMath is a GREAT reference that I've used many times to "remember" things such as how to solve differential equations and matrix multiplication properties. good luck!
Then there was the crackpot category theoretician
who thought he was a catamorphism operation. He'd walk around the psych ward with a pair of bananas, which he'd hold up around the other patients and giggle maniacally.
Once he did this to the resident hypochondriac (who was convinced he was in the final stages of inoperable brain cancer), but it didn't seem to bother him.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm constructing a unique arrow," said the crackpot, "with YOU as its target!"
"So what's the big deal about that?" said the hypochondriac. "I'm terminal."
(Of course, this joke is only funny if the mental hospital is Cartesian Closed...)
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to we
Hi, I'm 38. I have a similar situation. From my experience, there is only one thing stopping you - time.
I am a family man (two kids) and trying to get anything done with a family to take care of too has been very tough for me. So, slowly I realize I will eventually end up as yet another mathematician-wannabe... |sigh|
Recommendations? Get a family, skip the intellectual masturbation. When you're approaching forty years you will thank me. No algorithm beats a bed-time story.
sorry, but I had grey hairs at 20.
thx! that science game is funky!
i like the bit where the prof blows up if you get all the answers right hehe
I guarantee you will go back to hating math after taking a single class.
But seriously university classes in math tend to be rather boring because they tend to reduce even complicated fields into a few formulas that can be memorized and a few problem types for which you can memorize which formula to use.
Also they tend to assign a lot of dull homework.
So classes seem to be geared towards those that cant understand math but are willing to tackle it with brute memorization.
Or maybe i just went to a bad university.
Do what the students do, but on your own....Most tech related majors AT LEAST have to take a full year of calculus, which is usually 3 classes and typical they use the same book through all 3 of them, try getting a book from your nearest university (or even comm college) and check their Math department website, chances are the professor has posted homework assignments and you can start on those.......
the digits in the decimal system are 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
Any number plus (+) 1 is the next number in the set
when you get to 9, the number as a result of adding 1 is 10.
Yes, excellent idea. Tons of people do this at my university to refresh for their professional tests. But god, please don't ask a crapload of questions....I hate that nothing more. Some guy who's not paying for the class and who's obviously jumped in over his head asks a bunch of questions and waste our time.
I kid you not, EE351: "What's a transistor?" Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!
The Saxon Math Books
p
http://www.saxonpublishers.com/sitemap/index.js
Why are they the best?
Instead of heaving a month-mosh worth of stuff at a student ( in order to make the student's process appear good on the committee-reports ), the John Saxon's Idea was to give us 1 simple concept at a time, so that we actually learn it, and to layer/syncopate the concepts so that progress is continuous.
It works.
Messages to/for me ( in me journal )
Try the math column in Scientific American. The stuff there is usually a little more fun than
actual course work.
I suggest you ask these questions here. Your questions is quite specific to generalize to the young, dumb slashdot crowd. Many of the posters in these aforementioned newsgroups are university professors who have either written or have contributed to mathematical writings, papers, periodicals, and articles. They will definitely be more useful than what you'll find here.
Cheers
Hi, I am ph.D student in Math. Most of the useful math that you are going to need is going to start with college algebra/trigonometry. Then Calculus/Statistics/Linear Algebra. The only way to learn these is to do problems. If you are disciplined enough to work them on your own, then that is the key. But then, who do you turn to. Perhaps you could hire a tutor when you need help? Other than this idea, you should have an instructor to assign problems to you and keep you working. The only way to learn math is by doing example problems. Good reference: MathWorld.com
i got a B.S. in math in 2000 from UCSD. here are some
.
books i really enjoyed.
_Symmetry_ by Herman Weyl
_Geometry and the Imagination_ by David Hilbert
_How to Solve_ it by George Polya (anything by Polya is excellent)
These are classics written by famous mathematicians,
but they are not very advanced. They quickly get to
the "deep" and "beautiful" parts of their subjects.
of course to go on in math you will need command of
the important "every day" tools, esp. calculus and
linear algebra.
a good book for this is
_mathematical thinking: problem solving and proofs_ by
d'angelo and west. the first edition is better, if
you can find it
-a
Become friends with Math Professors or Math Teachers. or some other people who are good at math and talk about it a lot. When you hang around them for a while you pick stuff up. And espectly if they are a professor they will probly give you little helps and tips for free.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I have found that doing these USAMTS competition problems have pushed me forward a lot this past year of my high school career (not to mention an honorable mention finish). Try it and see what you learn. For those high schoolers out there, its a nice competition to get into, the only thing you pay is postage to send your answers in.
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
This one is a java-based demo of a bunch of signals and systems engineering math operations, at Johns Hopkins University, and I wish more stuff like this could be available (especially from students working in specific areas) to help students of all ages grasp more complicated math. Or even simple math.
However, I'd be happy if more adults knew that p=mv so they wouldn't be so inclined to cut off a bus in their tiny cars as they both approach a stop light...
I believe it's Dover anyways...they publish a really great series of math books on a variety of subjects, available at Barnes and Noble for $10-15. A real bargain if you ask me! I bought "Math for Nonmathematicians," for a refresher, but it is more of a history book--aninteresting read nonetheless. I haven't done high-level math in about 7-8 years either, so I broke out my old calculus books too. I enjoy studying number and graph theory, very useful for programmers.
This is what I did, I just dressed up like a gangsta grabbed my nine and showed up for math class. The teacher eventually asked me who I was, so I just told her I was skipping school since the beggining of the year and this was the first day I showed up and I wanna learn some match bi***!
Some colleges have courses on TV. In Portland, PCC (Portland Community College) they have 'telecourses' on Math. Unfortunately, I failed to keep up on the class. However, if I get renewed interest in taking the course I can fire up the PCC channel and watch it.
I imagine this is available in SOME other areas too. It's worth a view and doesn't cost you anything.
I just started a university degree and I have to take an extra math course. The profs at my university suggested taking the extra math I need (geometry & algebra) at a high school. I was going to but they couldn't find a teacher to teach it during the summer (hmm... wonder why?).
Anyway, adult high schools are usually quite cheap, the courses are at night (good thing for most people), they're available right now and you'll almost surely find courses on the easier subjects (algebra, geometry, basic calculus, etc). It's also very cheap.
Another option are the community colleges. They too tend to be cheap but they offer higher level courses and the profs are IMO just as good as the university profs. Also, the profs tend to be more accessible for extra help.
Here are a couple of other ways to use your local university:
(1) You can register as an official auditor. That means you can go to lecture, and usually take exams and have them graded. You won't be able to use the lab, if there is one. This gives you a more official status, and makes it easier to get your exams graded, and so on.
(2) You can enroll in summer school. A lot of universities have summer sessions that are open to everyone who is over 18, or who has a high school diploma, or who has permission from their high school principal. They charge full rate but you get 6-10 weeks of intensive academic whoop-ass.
It's up to you whether you can go the independent study + book route. That works fine for math, but it's a personal character thing whether you can discipline yourself to do it.
Web sites, et cetera, are hokum. A good book is much much better. Just go down to your college bookstore and browse some. If your math is at high school level, browse the "freshmen bonehead math" books.
It sounds like the real problem is going to be creating a space in your life to work on the math every damn day. Math is hard and takes a lot of sweat. Learning calculus is like, say, running a 10k race -- you are not going to get there with an earnest attitude or even just by buying the magic equipment. You get there by training every day for weeks or months.
And similarly (speaking as a big math geek and a horrible runner who can barely make 10k) -- don't worry one bit about other people you encounter who are way better than you. When I see some elite runner go by me, I just congratulate myself that I'm on the same path as them, propelling my fat geek ass under my own muscle power. It's okay to be a newbie, especially at something tough. Just get in the game and stay in the game.
Asking how to re-learn or even start in mathematics is a rather broad question,....are you in need of starting from pre-calc? the calculus series, or the advanced topics,......?
Regarding adult toys that help you with math: Consider spending a little extra, and you can get a triple ripple model. It will help you count up to three.
Uhhh. One. One ripple!
Nnnn. Two. Two ripples!!
Mrrrugh. Three. Three ripples!!! Ah ah ah!
Oh sorry, you wanted a book?
It has been my experience, taking college level math from both a big ten university and two different community colleges that the quality of instruction insofar as MATH classes go (I can make no claims about other classes) is much better. I thought I was bad at math at the U. Now that I am out of school though, I got interested in math and decided to try again. It appears I just had lousy teachers; I am actually fairly good at math.
There is a difference in student populations too... many of the students at the U were just taking the course because they had to, for a grade. At the community colleges the students are going there (for the most part) because they want to learn, which is a lot better IMHO.
Either way, higher education is so important that if nothing else you should try snagging some community college notes off a student or two. Many times you can get the instructor-written ones.
Liora
I'm in a similar situation.
I recently opted out of a PhD program in economics and am contemplating going back to school for physics or math. The problem is, I don't have much of a background in physics and my math was primarily focused on stats and linear algebra - both of which are used extensively in economics. What would slashdotters suggest. There have to be a few physics majors out there. Maybe some PhDs?
I suppose I'll have to go bask to undergrad but...
Get ready to mod this -1 redundant.
As an undergraduate I had a minor in mathematics. I've been out of school for a few years and was interested in taking the GRE. In order to prepare for the quantitative section of the GRE I enrolled in a 5 week summer evening math course at my local community college. The course was titled "college algebra", it was basically stuff you should already know coming out of high school. However, it was wonderful. A perfect refresher for somebody who hasn't writen a proof or solved a quadratic since college. I enjoyed the experience so much that I'm enrolling in more classes this fall. I have found that community colleges are wonderful resources, but more importantly tuition is dirt cheap. $67.00 a credit hour here. I can't stress this enough, tuition doesn't get any cheaper than that anywhere in the US.
Check out my podcast: DreamStation.cc Video Game Show
Read a few college math course syllabus (syllabi? ) and buy the books that the class would be using.
o oks.html
I suggest a good college as your baseline.
http://www-math.mit.edu/undergraduate/class-textb
We are all geeks, just admit it and get on with your life.
Find a good book on the area of math you are interested in then keep it on you as you run all the errands of your day. I highly recommend Gilbert Strang's books. He is the one of the best explainers of math around.
If you go to a doctor's office, and they make you wait for 45 minutes, then that's 45 minutes you can use to read the book.
I ironically discovered an interest in math shortly after the birth of my first son (although I had studied more post high school math than you did). What amazed me, however, was how much good I could get out of 45 minutes here and there when I was really interested in a subject and always kept the book I was working on handy. If you only get a few hours a week in, but keep at it, you'd be suprised how much you learn in just a few months.
Good luck!
The Teaching Company has great audio and video lectures on all subjects by reknown professors. Though they may seem a bit expensive, try requesting your local public library to order a set. I know I've ordered them for people when I worked in a library.
a sp?Sbj=10
Here's a link to their Science & Math courses: http://www.teachco.com/ttcstore/CoursesBySubject.
Mathematics is one of those fields where there's a huge variety of topics covered by a single label. What does "math" mean to you, and what are you interested in?
If you're interested in calculus (differential equations, dynamic systems, chaos, etc.), you would probably be best served by getting a current university calculus book and Maple/MathLab/Mathematica/whatever and working through it. The software handles the mechanical aspects of the process and you'll probably find the material easier to pick up than before.
Same thing if you're interested in number theory (cryptology, matrices, etc.) If you get an introductory text designed to work with one of these programs it will handle the mechanical grunt work and allow you to focus on the concepts.
If your interest is precalculus (algebra, trig, etc.), you may be better off working through the problems by hand. You want the software to be a tool, not a crutch, and one of the main reasons for the usual introductory sequence (up through PDQ) is just to train the students how to reliably perform the necessary work.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Seriously, what subject matter interests you. That makes all the difference.
A: None. The Universe spins the bulb, and the Zen master merely stays out of the way.
Same thing happened to me. Once I started 3d game programming I understood that I needed to learn geometry.
Not only have I learned it but I understand it pretty well also since the things that I learn can be applied in a virtual world so I can see the effect of sin, cos and tan etc.
I was in the same position as you about a year ago...I had done advanced calculus stuff in high school about 12 years ago, and really enjoyed it, but somehow let it drop when I got to university. I bought a couple of calculus text books for a refresher and took off for a train ride across the country with them (!). I found it came back to me fairly well, but it was difficult without the structure of a classroom w/required assignments, etc.
If you're just interested in exploring some (fairly) current math theory and less in the mechanics of solving problems, I highly recommend a book called "mathematics: the new golden age" by Keith Devlin. It covers such topics as primes and factoring them, set theory, topology, etc. It was a little over my head, but in the good way -- it forced me to stretch and although there were things I didn't quite get, it was really enjoyable.
just my 2c, hope it's helpful...good luck!
:wq
I would try doing the books first and see if I could find a math brain friend or two who would be willing to help me over the rough spots. I've done this before. Between hs and college I took 7 years to "find myself". When I decided to to college I brought my math back up to speed and taught myself two semesters of calculus to boot. I started with second semester calculus in college (and a linear algebra course also) and aced both of them. But then I've always been a math nut. YMMV
It is obvious from you post that you are willing to put in time on your own to understand the material. Your best bet would be to call a local university or high school and find a math tutor. A tutor would provide you someone who already knows the answers without having to waste time sitting in a lecture hall or watching a teacher at the blackboard.
I have tutored several older students who had decided to go back to school. Some were furthering their education, others were completing it after an extended absence. Whatever the case, they needed a person who knew the answers to their questions and had the patience to sit down with them.
If you really do have the motivation, a couple of hours every other weekend with a tutor would start you on your way to a better understanding of mathematics.
A few weeks ago I started to really think about all of the math that I missed or didn'tpay that much attention to in high school and college. Most of my study was on liberal art topics and not sciences, nor mathmatics.
I went to my local Borders Books and picked up a copy of Algebra for Dummies. It helped to knock the rust off of my math memories. After finishing the Algebra book, I plan on getting Geometry for Dummies, Precalculus: A Self-Teaching Guide (Self-Teaching Guide) by Stephen L. Slavin, Mathematics at Work: Practical Applications of Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Logarithms to the Step-By-Step Solutions of mechanica by Henry H. Ryffel, and Basic Physics: A Self-Teaching Guide (Self-Teaching Guide) by Karl F. Kuhn.
I carefully looked through the books and reviews on Amazon.com. I think that when I am finished going over these books...i will have quenched my thirst for mathmatics revival!
Reviewer: Jodee C Wickert from Salt Lake City A truly beautiful book, by an author (incidentally not a mathematician by trade) who clearly has a passion for the subject. As Peter Hilton writes in the forward, echoing GH Hardy, mathematics is worth doing for its own sake. Hilton further contends that an educated person must understand mathematics as well as any other field. This book--suitable for both mathematicians and those with less training in the field--covers the entirety of mathematics from basic counting princicples through differential equations and sprinkles interesting historical anecdotes throughout. I can give it no higher endorsement than to point out that both Martin Gardner and Philip Morrison count it as an invaluable and indispensable reference.
ISBN: 039304002X
You could also decide what field of maths you dig the most by browsing "The Mathematical Tourist" by Ivars Peterson. http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_5_11_98.html
Very inspiring.
...some of us are opposed to putting computers in every classroom...
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
hey, here's an idea: try working some math problems. there are tons of resources on the web from math contests that were originally given to high school students all the way up through graduate students. try working some of them - you can often find elegant solutions published right along the problems after you have tried to solve them. here's a couple of links to good problem repositories:
/ pr oblemarchive.html
/ pu tnam/index.html
n .h tml
http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems
http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems
and to order copies of easier (though still very interesting) exams:
http://www.unl.edu/amc/d-publication/publicatio
good luck,
jeff.
I'm a math prof at a small private college. My students who have taken courses at community colleges repeatedly tell me that the classes are so much better at our school than at community colleges. At small private colleges, your math courses are taught by real, professional mathematicians with Ph.Ds. The Ph.D. is not always directly relevant, but it does give your professor the authority to look far ahead of your current coursework and tell you what is relevant and what is not.
Community college professors are usually masters (or less) degree instructors, perhaps working part time teaching while also doing other jobs. They have far fewer rigorous evaluations of their teaching, and they do absolutely no real mathematics research, so they don't really know what mathematics is actually important and what isn't.
Professors at big universities also have Ph.Ds and do research, of course, but they are paid primarily to conduct research and teach graduate students; undergrads are the lowest priority for them.
calculus - Stewart
real analysis - Rudin or Strichartz
abstract algebra - Fraleigh
linear algebra - Axler
complex analysis - Conway or Brown
combinatorial game theory - Berlekamp [winning ways for your mathematical plays].
I've also found the Schaum's outline series to be quite useful, although you probably want to have a "standard" text around too.
...he said what I meant but better...
The best one i've heard is...
NOVA the N is for knowledge.
Of course when you say it, it sounds better.
Discussion Never Hurt Anyone.
Libertarians
You might want to try distance learning from local colleges. I know Texas A&M and Tech Texas offer it here in Texas. The courses give you college credit but let you learn at your own pace. You usually have 6 months to complete the curriculum that they send you and you'll have to take a final exam at an "approved testing facility". You're assigned a professor so if you have any questions, send them an e-mail. I turned in the majority of my coursework via e-mail. I believe the course only cost me a couple hundred bucks and I never had to sit through a single English class!!!
Forgotten Algebra
Barron's
0812019432
Apologies if you're beyond this, but it is EXCELLENT if you're thinking of going to a
college level algebra class. Takes a few weeks
to work through. You'll be ready for intermediate
algebra or precalc when done.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Personally, I'd start by proving the Riemann Hypothesis. At that point you can take the million dollar prize and hire a few Nobel Laureates as tutors.
This tagline is umop apisdn.
This is an astonishing physics and calculus textbook. It gives intuitive explanations for Newtonian and relativistic physics. It was written by a Dartmouth physics professor who captures his 30 years of teaching techniques. And the calculus textbook is a delight to read as well.
You can read more at:
http://physics2000.com/
The best part? It's $10 for the CD; $25 if you want the CD and a printed manual.
The guys whole point is he's trying to re-learn math AFTER COLLEGE. Who gives a fuck about the 'college experience'. He wants to learn math. Not hook up with drunk co-eds and go to 'protest marches'. Go back and re-read the post...
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
I'm gonna remain an anonymous coward because in real life I'm an overpaid programmer, but here's my advice: Go to www.drmath.com. That's solved a lot of math problems for me. Everything from simple to unsimple stuff in there.
And by this I mean- see if you can do your learning at work. I don't know what you do so I'm not sure how practical this is for you. But I can totally relate to your situation.
I've got 2 toddlers, I don't spend enough time w/them and my wife as it is and I don't have spare cash or time for school.
So what I do when I want to put some decent time in learning something I try to find a way to make it a function of my job.
I'm a programmer- when I want to learn something new I start working on a way to make it fit into the company's needs. Now that is kind of an easy thing to do sometimes I'll admit. Sometimes I have to be creative.
If you work for a company w/better employee policies than mine they may pay for you take classes on the clock. That, I would think, would be ideal.
But say these ideas are just way out there- you're a night security guy. Well if you are allowed to read while you are gaurding whatever- the book ideas come in handy.
I've found that when there is little leeway in my personal life I just need to look hard at ways to create that leeway on the job. (I justify my time on slashdot when I find out about current computing issues that affect the company- happens more often than you would think- and my boss is cool w/it)
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Damn thats funny. I just about spit soda all over my laptop. Too bad no one else here will get it. Thats way funnier than this gem.
Whats yellow and equivalent to the Axiom of Choice?
Zorn's Lemon
Shameless plug: I started an online publishing company that distributes PDF texts free of charge for students' self-study. Our first book is designed to help the student move on from Calculus to more rigorous mathematics.
Here
Sure, that's a terrific site.
Can you assure everyone that you found it yourself?
Availability of links such as these on Google is abundant.
Thanks for the link, though.
Saxon is a publisher of VERY well written math books. It explains everything in easy to understand detail, with a slightly different approach to teaching it. Why every school in the US doesn't use these books is beyond me, but I taught myself using these books and they work very well. Of course they cover topics you would find in k-12 schools (I belive they go as far as calculus), I don't know if they go beyond that.
My little sister is in high school, and she brings home her math homework, opens the saxon book she has at home, learns it, then does her assignment. The book she works out of from school tells nothing about the concept it is teaching, and the teachers don't teach it well enough to really understand it - so she learns from the saxon book.
www.saxonpublishers.com is their web page, hope this helps,
Brandon
I recently found myself in the exact same position and ended up committing myself to night classes at my local city college for the grand total of $79, plus $70 for the text book for Algebra II. This was a 16 week course!
It was three nights a week and i too was busy at work, but told my Boss that i was doing this and that he would need to understand my needs and motivation etc, blah...
I thoroughly enjoyed it and am sitting advanced trig, series and pre calculus this fall. I found that i can do this work myself but that sitting a test at the end of the day gave me the confidence that i had really figured this stuff out.
You may want to teach yourself the easy stuff and then take classes for the more advanced courses. Its worth the time and effort, cos i got an A and now feel like i am not the dumb mathling that i thought i was.
Its one damn thing before another. (Dick Bird 1999)
http://www.aw.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096, 0201669749,00.html
This is a good source. Just in Time, its just full of good examples.
Rather, you should begin your study of mathematics by reading the Ancient mathematicians. Begin with Euclid. In reading the Elements, you'll quickly discover that Euclid has presented a complete science (from self-evident first principles to logical conclusions) that includes truths about geometry (continuous quantity), number (discrete quantity), even the foundations of algebra (Elements, Book II). The Elements culminates with the constrution of the Five Perfect (or Platonic) Solids, the proofs of which are marvelous to behold.
In reading Euclid you'll not only create a rock-solid mathematical foundation for yourself, but you'll also:
After you've finished with Euclid, move on to Apollonius' Conics, a beautiful work, a thousand times more complete and wonderful in its treatment of conic sections than you'll find in any modern analytic geometry textbook. You may also want to look at works by guys like Archimedes, whose early work on the infinite inspired the Classical develompent of the Calculus.
With this firm foundation, you'll be able to read and understand the mathematics of Descartes, whose treatment of geometry (notably the solution of the four-line locus) was key in the development of algebraic notation. And if you stick with it, you can probably read Newton's Principia, Leibniz, and other later Classical mathematicians. I'd stay away from 20th century mathematics, at least at first. There's lots more joy for the amateur mathematician in reading and understanding these Ancient and Classical works than there is in trying to decipher some of the work that has been done recently (within the past 100 years).
Whatever you do, read original works. They are infinitely more understandable than textbooks and other secondary sources. Find someone or a small group of people to discuss them with. Ask each other what each author is doing, what assumptions he has made, what he thinks he has proven (if anything). Memorize proofs, especially with Euclid.
There is lots more that you can do, just with the authors I've named here, but at the very least, even if you ultimately decide to take a college course or something, get yourself a copy of Euclid's Elements. It's a singularly wonderful work, and you'll be very glad you did.
Belloc
I got more rhymes than Jamaica got Mangoes.
There are great Cliff's Notes for math. I picked up the one for Calculus before taking the course. It came with a CD that had great visualizations, etc. The book was great. It had quick reference cards, was well organized, and was short and to the point. I preffered it to my actual text for that class.
The version of the CD that I have doesn't work under OS 9, much less X, but I'm sure they've updated it by now. I don't know what kind of support it has for Linux or Windows. I know it did work with some version of Windows, but Linux support is probably poor.
t'nera semordnilap
I'd start off reading some of the bridging books that introduce undergraduates to abstract math, proof structure, etc. I'm actually reading "Bridge to Abstract Mathematics", by Ronald Morash, ISBN 394-35429-X, "How to Read and Do Proofs" and "The Keys to Advanced Mathematics: Recurrent Themes in Abstract Reasoning" and I highly recommend all of them. They won't cover any specific subjects, but I've been struggling with undergraduate mathematics myself lately and have found these books invaluable.
You should start by looking at every single function in the header file "math.h" in ANSI C (Appendix B of Kernigan & Ritchie) and for each of them ask yourself "what exactly does this function do?"
Then you need some math programs. You only really need one from each of two categories. You need one serious number crunching program, and one serious algebra program.
For number crunching, I recommend "Octave" (which is free but hard to compile correctly unless there is already a binary for your platform), "Matlab" (which will run you several hundreds of dollars but you can probably get a used copy with a want ad or an auction site), or a spreadsheet with a sufficient coverage of library functions, such as Excel. I recommend them in that order.
In addition to a number cruncher, you will want a computer algebra system (which will also do calculus and "higher" math): Maple, Matlab, and Macsyma; again, I recommend them in that order.
I am a math professor at a liberal arts university and we have a "non-traditional" student (he hates it when I call him that) who went back to school for reasons like the one you mention. However, he has is doing it full time; he was a fairly successful consultant/businessman and took early retirement. Sounds like you don't have that option.
If you have a fairly week background in mathematics, you are going to need to "go to school". By this I do not mean that you have to register for a class. I mean that you need to be around people who are learning mathematics and talk with them - a lot. Students will typically tell you that they learn most of their mathematics not from the classroom setting, but talking with other students. Especially at the early levels, learning mathematics is very similar to learning a foreign language; to really learn it you must surround yourself with people who speak the language.
Our non-traditional student has learned this lesson well. For all intents and purposes, he lives in the math lounge across from the department. He even does non-math homework there just so he can be around when someone comes in to study math. He also gets the bonus the faculty come in and talk to him when they need a break. We don't always talk about the material he his studying; sometimes we talk about something that was in the news or something we are working on. But whatever we talk about increases his math vocabulary and exposes him to the important concepts in mathematics.
If all you do is night classes, you will not get this, even if you go to some of the best teaching schools in the country. And you certainly won't get this from reading books. So what is there to do? Many good liberal arts universities have math clubs that are intended to "popularize mathematics" and draw in new majors to the department.
A lot of times, these clubs pull in speakers to talk about jobs in mathematics. However, these clubs also farm for Putnam contestants (the big undergraduate mathematics competition) and hence sometimes work on problems. Putnam problems can often be understood with very little mathematics (though their solution is far from simple).
So, if you have a liberal arts university in your area, you might want to check if they have a math club (And whether it actually does math, or is just a social club). These typically meet in the evening and would give yourself an opportunity to surround yourself with other people learning math. This is not a substitute for learning math, however. You will still need to start either reading or taking night courses in order to learn the basic "grammar".
I was kinda in the same boat. Due to lousy math innstruction in HS and a dumbass mistake on a placement test in said HS, I barely got out with algebra. Not good for someone going into physics. I took a remdial self paced course in trig and analysis as freshman. There are a several good books written as college level remedial math course. Check your local community college bookstore for some of these. Meanwhile, my science book club sent me a really fun book. The title is something like _Mathematics_Through_History_. The author develops mathematical concepts as mankind discovered them through time. It takes you all the way from math as homo erectus might have done all the way to pre calc and some calculus as well. It's a big thick book that gives you a decent work out as you take it from the shelf and replace it. The book was designed as text book and has exercises. I pick it up from time to time and read a chapter or two just for fun. I dunno if I would teach from this book or even use it as a serious text book, but it's darned interesting read.
...sort of... when he got out of the service. He decided he wanted to do something different (he was a Navy engineer, IIRC - he told us this story like 12 years ago when I was one of his students) and started going through his old books from school to figure out what he liked. Eventually, he found one on algebra (group theory) and picked a hard problem in the book he had never understood. Starting with page 1, he worked through everything in the book until he'd solved it - completely - by himself - working alone - with no timetables. When he finished, several months had passed and he was having the time of his life. He started taking formal classes at the University, and is now (was at the time) a full Professor at BGSU.
I guess the point is that math still needs you if you still need math.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Yes, it's been in my bookmarks list for quite some time now.
Mathematical Atlas
Statistics Every Writer Should Know
Why is it called COMMON sense when so few people have it?
Hopefully after you get through a few books you'll have a better idea of what you want to focus on. Even if you do end up plonking down a few hundred bucks for a night course, at least you'll make better of it because it's covering the material you want to learn.
On the other hand, you may find that there's enough recreatinoal mathematics books out there to sate that thirst for knowledge instead. This way means you may still spend $500 on books, but it's deferred over several years and at a pace you choose.
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
Laugh, Amen to the above... Zoren's Lemon and Abelian Grapes ;)
What do you get if you cross an elephant and an Aardvark?
Elephant.Ardvark.Sin(theta) of course.
And, as a Biologist and Mathematician, my favorite:
What do you get if you cross a Mosquito and a Mountain climber?
You can't, one's a vector, the other a Scaler.
Enjoy! (Both the jokes, and Mathematics in general.. a good proof is poetry for the logical mind)
I was in the same situation as you are now in 15 years ago when I started my electrical engineering course. I refreshed und extended my mathematical knowledge by use of the Springer Series UTM (Undergraduate Texts in Mathemathics). Nearly all of the volumes have a short but precises introduction to notation and background in the first couple of charpters.
Of particular use were Marsden/Weinstein Calculus I/II/III as well as Lang's introductory book on Algebra.
May your quest for knowledge be a happy one.
The actual computer algebra programs I recommend, in order, are: Maple, Mathematica, and Macsyma.
I take it that you're interested in math itself, not necessaarily interested in pursuing a degree in math. Trying to learn most things through formal education is like trying to paint a barn with a brush that only has 10% of its bristles. You'll get it done eventually, but boy is it inefficient.
One of the few advangates that formal education provides, at least in terms of learning, is the step-by-step programmed nature of it. If you're trying to learn something and you don't know how to approach it or what to study, then formal instruction can work. However when you know what it is you should be studying and learning, then formal schooling is usually a hinderance because you can learn things more quickly and more thoroughly on your own, assuming of course that you have some degree of discipline. The forced nature of formal education is its other advantage, and it is a dubious one at that.
Formal education is geared towards the stupid and lazy. For someone who is intelligent and industrious it usually gets in the way more than anything else.
Primary and secondary school spends twelve years teaching those of average intelligence what those whose IQ ranges in the top 10% can easily learn in six. I should know because when I was in sixth grade my "achievemnt" test scores were on par with most college students. My IQ is about 130, or in the top 10%. Of course my teachers all thought I was much brighter, but then they're not used to dealing with someone like me and are, by and large, not too far above the 50% percentile themselves.
College courses are better in that the instructors aren't there to babysit anyone. Also anyone who is either stupid or lazy doesn't usually stick around for long. The pace of study and depth in which the subject is explored can vary greatly however. There have been courses I've had to work pretty hard at, of course those have almost always been the ones that were worth taking.
But anyway, my point is don't spend money to take a course when independent discipline and effort will get you farther in your pursuit of knowledge. Spend money on courses only when they are required for some other purpose independent of learning, such as a job. Don't rely on them as your sole or even primary form of education. Rely on yourself and you'll always be ahead of curve.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
Too late, John Nash is already halfway through ;-)
3.243F6A8885A308D313
Too many posts basically tell the OP not
;-)
to go to college! There's no doubt some truth to that. The school part of the experience is not,
as you may naievely surmise, to "be taught", rather to provide the opportunity to teach yourself (ostensibly with guidance and supervision), then be tested.
The goal of the university experience is part education for its own sake, and part quest for a framable document! Myriad problems arise when an individual seeks one part without the others!
My university catalog actually says you'll not be admitted if you have more than 15 hours without a degree plan. (I think that's pretty harsh).
Community colleges don't do this, but once you get a degree from one, it's somewhat a waste of effort to keep studying there.
I have a certain amount of contempt for the whole system, which was put there BY the system (been to 5 colleges!) So excuse my hostility today
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I found some video/workbook combos that cover covered basic math, algebra, geometry, calc and trig in great detail. The tapes seem to be geared for high school age or adult viewers, and are taught by instructors who were chosen for their knowledge and presentation skills.
The Standard Deviants company covers various math topics on video or DVD.
Or you could pick up one of the many Math education CD's at a local software store.
memorize this
and you will be well on your way to proving the riemann conjecture...
Remember the original query concerned low cost options, something most small colleges have no understanding of.
Most large public universities have pitifull undergrad math programs because the classes are taught by foreign grad students.
Go to the public library and sign out math textbooks. Then sit down, read, and solve the problems. Don't waste any money buying popsci math books "The Magic of Numbers". Trust me on this, it is the only way to go (and is much less expensive).
I remember one of my Chinese profs encouraged people to do that for the second semester.
He was the school VP and didn't get paid to teach the class anyhow, so he didn't really care if we were paying for the class or not.
i did this with film classes. after the first lecture, go up to the professor and tell him exactly what you told us, and ask if he'd mind if you just sat in on his classes to learn. i've never had a professor say no to me, simply because they don't have to do more work, and are gaining a student who is guaranteed to be eager to learn what they're teaching.
May I reccomend Sparknotes.com. Their mainly known for their own online brand of Cliff's Notes, however their math sections are quite in depth. Plus, everything is free, however occasionaly you'll reach a page that will ask for you to sign up, which is also free. I'm really quite happy with their site. I'm a high school student who's quite unsastisfied with the average level math track that I downgraded to (i've learned pythagorean's theorum 4 times since 4th grade, whoopi!). IMHO, the full fledged text books at my library were quite boring and made little distinction as to whats important to learn...and the other 500 pages of in depth clauses and contradictions.
Only the meek get pinched. The bold survive.
Ask [your daughters] to teach you.
This is the best advice so far, because it will help you and your daughters. One of the things I learned while I was a math tutor was that I didn't know dick about math until I started tutoring. Sure, I had made it to Calculus, and I could keep up at that level, but I didn't know math. It has been said that the best way to really learn something is to try and tech it to someone else, and I've found that it really is true.
Having your daughters teach you the math they're studying will help you relearn the things you've forgotten (or maybe even teach you new things, depending on where they are at), but it will help them even more through the increased understanding they will gain by trying to teach these concepts to someone else, and perhaps as your memory is refreshed you can teach them concepts that don't seem to be presented to them otherwise (the way Kramer's Rule is presented currently is a prime example of this. It is more much more difficult to understand the mechanics of it with the current method, even though (or maybe because) it is more consistent with matrix mechanics).
A better understanding of math can only open more and better opportunities to them, which is a noble pursuit for any parent. Also, the time spent will help strengthen the bonds between you.
So, don't steal their books, ask them to teach you. This is by far the most beneficial solution for all involved.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
I throw out a little caution here. Not too long ago I was helping a roomate through a remedial math class he was taking at community college. The text books were horrible. Without me, the poor guy would never have gotten the idea of negative numbers. I'd look for a good alternate text book. Still, this approach is a very good idea.
It's one of those cool toys where the car changes into a robot, right? right???
Try http://free-ed.net/
c ulus
They have courses in several departments; their core mathematics include:
Arithmetic & Pre-Algebra
Algebra
Trigonometry
Geometry
Cal
It might not be everything, but it'll be at least the primer you're looking for. All material is freely available, though some of the sites they reference do require you to registerfor access. So it's a free lunch if you tell them your name.
Any spoon would be too big.
I'm in a similar situation as you, except that I was never good at math in the first place.
A colleague highly recommended a book called 'Engineering Mathematics' by Kenneth Stroud--I bought it, and have started going through it. It looks pretty comprehensive, and seems to be a good kick-start for re-learning everything from basic algebra on upwards which usually put me to sleep during high school and college.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
Depending on your level, check out: "Discovering Higher Mathematics: Four Habits of Highly Effective Mathematicians"
It is accessible by people of many skill levels.
I found myself in a similar situation about a year and a half back. I bought a couple of books from Amazon and was refreshing my math skills in preparation for completing a CS degree. But the more I studied math, the more interesting it became and I decided to pursue a math degree instead.
I found that studying out of a book or two didn't quite work for me. I needed the classroom environment where I could ask questions and talk to other students.
I met with an undergrad advisor at a local university and he suggested that I retake some courses at one of the local community colleges and then transfer to the university. This was also quite good for my GPA since I am doing much better the second time around. I am more interested in learning the material than just getting through class. I also found that about half of the class was my age (33yo) or older.
One thing of which you should be aware: some of the classes that are required for the degree are only offered during the day. I'm lucky in that my employer is willing to work with me on that issue.
Best of luck to you!
CCs are designed for adults returning to college. You might find that most CC profs are your age and so they will be easy to talk to and learn from.
Not funny. Here's funny:
Did you hear about the constipated mathematician? He worked it out with a pencil.
Graduate school. Take these classes at a community college:
1) Algebra
2) Trigonometry
3) Calculus
4) Differential Equations
5) Linear Algebra
6) Prob/Stat
7) Abstract Algebra
8) Numerical Methods/Analysis
Then send your applications for grad school off. If you pass those seven classes you will be a shoe in.
The middle mind speaks!
So, one night whilst out for a drink I grabbed the little packets of sauce that were on the table. I laid down three packets of tomato sauce and said that these three packets could be represented by a single packet of tartare. Then I put down two packets of tartare and asked how many packets of tomato sauce that represented.
That was her first exercise in symbolic representation for about thirteen years. She passed it, and has gone on to take access courses before studying for four years to be a dispensing optician. She's now done her finals, involving such things as ray tracing and equations of quite ridiculous lengths that usually had to be re-arranged and substituted into other equations. We're waiting to hear the results, though she's passed everything else so far.
So there you go. My small contribution to the world of teaching - applied mathematics using packets of sauce in a pub. Not the most conventional maths lesson of all time, but it worked.
Cheers,
Ian
Your teacher's name wan't Masey was it? I may have the name spelled wrong, but this is identical to a guy I knew in the Navy who decided he wanted to teach math. We were Nuclear Machinist's Mates on the USS Enterprise at the time.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Computers have made it much easier to experiment with mathematical ideas, and experimenting helps you learn better. I'd suggest buying a copy of Mathematica and one of the companion books. It will do you more good than college courses until you're back in the swing of things.
For the more adventuresome, I'd try J from JSoftware. It's terser, and more intellectually challenging, but it's free and also has advantages over Mathematica in some respects. Ken Iverson has some on-line papers that make a good companion (one of which comes with the J distribution).
College courses cost too much to be worthwhile, IMHO, if you don't want a degree.
Get some good textbooks on specific subjects (find out what the school system or local college recommends, to start). Get some problem books with worked solutions to go along with them (e.g., Schaum's Outlines). However, working alone can only get you so far. When you have questions, try some of the Usenet newsgroups, like sci.math or k12.ed.math.
I had to take university math after 10 years of inactivity. The best thing to do is just jump right into your subject. If you are taking Calculus start doing Calculus. Don't fuck around, just do Calculus problems. When your learning algebra, just take the text and do lots of Algebra problems.
My point is i found i didnt need any refresher courses to learn Calculus, algebra, differential equations etc, I just had to sit and plug my way through the textbooks for each subject.
Haha, I get it now. That is pretty damn funny. Thanks, sllort.
Since you state that you haven't done it since your first year of university (~18), and since that has been nearly 10 years ago (assume 9), it follows that you are now 27 y.o. That's far too old to learn math fundamentals like calculus, differential equations or complex analysis. Thanks for asking.
My university has a site to help students review the math they may have forgotten. It's called Braintrax[braintrax.umr.edu], it's an excellent visually-oriented math review. Even if you aren't interested in the math, the java applet is very cool.
One option is community college
Yup, that's exactly what I'm doing. I've been feeling the same way as the article submitter for a while now, and finally got off my ass and did something about it. Just applied for a mathematics course at my local community college.
The nice thing is that it lets me get a second degree at my own pace whilst still working. Either I can just take the courses at the CC, "cash in" the credits and come out with an AA degree, or can transfer the credits over and finish up at a "full" university to get a BA, still part-time.
Good luck, whatever you choose.
What would Lemmy do?
to Cliff for asking this question and those who are seriously answering. I am starting to learn to program in C in my spare time and if it is one thing I could use, it is a better understanding of math.
Of course, I am worse off then Cliff is, as I never even reached Algebra in High School.
I'm going to take this wildly off topic, because something flashed inside my brain.
;)
.. the official recognition and accredation as their stats, whether they be a history grad or an official fan. Your suggestion is the corollary but demonstrates an exciting point - its clearly benificial to society in this case to let you sit in on class, since there will never be a shortage of paying folks there for the 'official gear' to support the industry financially. Any 'run-off' like sitting in or copying a CD is simply a bonus - free info back to the people, free advertising for the content creator, and everyone saves on card scanners, security gaurds, and DRM OSes!
----
I'm waiting for the anti-piracy posters to flame all over your post - your stealing your proffessors IP! How can he make a living - you're one less might-be student to extort!
This is tongue and cheek of course, but hey, those 'then everyone will steal the CD, theyll just go without the paper CD insert' people should be chiming in 'then nobdy will pay for school, theyll just go without the tests' any minute now, right?
Okay, I gather the next thing someone might say is that a school gives you official accredation. A piece of paper that means, "We think that this person knows their stuff, so we vouch for them." So, a diploma is, in many ways, a brand. Its not just that you completed your courses, its that that school says you're as capable as the other folks they've turned out, which employers presumably have some sort of track record with.
Now, with CDs, the 'brand' is the official gear. The official CD. The official 'making of' CD. Its a diploma, from the school of "I'm a fan of so-and-so".
Anyhow, I've long since felt that people don't buy music/art/culture because they want the cold hard media - they want to get the 'diploma'
"Old man yells at systemd"
A local community college is your best bet. You can pay for classes "a la carte".
Here's a good starting point:
You need algebra to start....without algebra you can't do anything. After that:
Calculus I & Calculus II: Integration and differentiation.
Statistics: Very important...means, medians, confidence intervals...etc.
Like computer science? Take discrete math. This is extremely important if you want to understand the "digital" world, and the foundations of logic...truth tables etc.
That should be plenty to keep you busy. Calc III and differential equations are really hard-core engineering maths. I was an EE major before switching to CS...let's just say that Diff EQs, helped me make the switch.
Have fun and good luck!
-ted
If you need to get up to speed quickly, then, as many have said, find a community college and take a course. Unless you are extremely dedicated, you will get up to speed quicker with a course than just learning on your own from a book.
If you are doing this out of a love of Mathematics, and want to do it on the cheap, go to eBay or the like for textbooks. You can always check with professors at the local community college or University for books they recommend, or even go to the college bookstore and look for used textbooks. Another option is to find someone who tutors college students, and explain what you are trying to do. When you run into stumbling blocks, pay the tutor for an hour or two of time to help you out when you need it.
DMCA - Chilling free speech since 1998.
Cryptography, 'math magic', chaos theory, whatever.... as you come to stuff you don't understand, study that in enough detail to undertand our main-interest item.
That'll keep you motivated when the stuff gets way too boring.
On the down side, in the end you won't get a sheepskin AND you won't have what others consider a 'well rounded', and your mathematical education will not conform to a 'well grounded pegagogy'. Whatever TF that means. Your knowledge will also have not been rigorously tested.... lots of cons.
Another approach, see which universities have put up their syllabi and follow that.
This was also my experience also. When I took advanced calculus in college the professor repeatedly asked me to change majors (I was getting straight As). When she asked the reason why, I put it as best I could. I said I had no problems remembering formulas but there was some part of calculus I wasn't quite understanding. Kind of like seeing seeing a part of a picture and almost being to the point of guessing what the rest of the picture was but not getting anywhere. Very flustrating. She couldn't help me either because she had simply memorized the formulas and gone on.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
John Allen Paulos -- L
Scientific American 2 months ago had a Calc. course advertised for ~50.00 I think it was the spintronics issue. Anyone tried this? I looked pretty good from the ad.
Teaching yourself from a math book can work well, but I think that it is also important to have a knowlegable person you can consult. The problem with teaching yourself in isolation is that when you get stuck, you don't have anyone to pull you out. The teach-yourself-calculus-type books try to minimize this kind of thing, but chances are it will still happen.
If you have any friends who are math geeks, they'd probably be glad to answer questions and talk math with you. If you don't have any math-geek friends, then perhaps you could talk with your daughter's teacher, or hire a tutor, although tutors can be pricey.
If you have access to the PBS-U channel on TV or can find the tapes, you might want to check out a group called "Standard Deviants" and their eponymous show.
It's basically high school curricula, at several levels, but they have a way of making some pretty dry material memorable. I was really surprised at what I retained after watching a few of their shows on physics and math. (They teach all kinds of subject matter.)
The girls are frequently cute too.
... and start reading them. Do the problems. It is that simple.
Auditing (or actually taking) classes will help alot.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Here is a website I once did some work http://curvebank.calstatela.edu/
There is also some interesting Java and JavaScript tools to play with. Also, contributions are welcomed.
I work at PSU so I'll give it a plug here. Don't know about the quality of these courses because I haven't taken any through this yet...
d ex.shtml
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/index.shtml
and for course info...
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/search/in
If your serious about this check it out. I hope this helps you.
--Paul
My wife was in a similar position -- she couldn't remember anything beyond basic algebra from high school, and didn't have the time for classes. She ended up getting a copy of "Practical Algebra: A Self-Teaching Guide" be Shelby and Slavin, and learning from that in what spare time she did have. She enjoyed learning from the book, and now understands algebra very well indeed.
This is easily the best math textbook to learn from that I've come across. The explanations are consistently clear, accessable (my wife almost never had to get me to explain things) and concise. At the same time, this is not a dumbed-down book. The content is simply excellent, and is well presented.
If you're reasonably intelligent, you'll learn the subject as you teach. I've been doing this as sort of a refresher course in Spanish. When their maths level gets to the point where it would start to challenge me, that's when I intend to take over. The learning materials I buy for them will help me as well. :)
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
First of all, this is a sick request from where I stand! I say this mostly because I am a 4th year graduate student in an APPLIED MATH program who really truly hates MATH. I guess I mean to say that I hate MATH for MATH's sake. People who have suggested that you get involved in community college classes are dead on accurate if you want "formal training" (these courses tend to be "laid back" and "fun" if you're there with the attitude that you want to be there and not some begrudging 20-something business or nursing student who is there because it's required). I recommend this path. To be sure, you'll find yourself enjoying this little hobby more if you've got a nice foundation of the principles (say some univariate and multivariate calculus, a little bit of ordinary and partial differential equations, and linear algebra, the latter you will fall in love with).
All of this being said, a bigger point remains: SCREW MATH BOOKS! They are references and references ONLY. You're never going to learn much unless you go and get your hands dirty with what you're learning. In so far as books and community colleges are concerned, this means homework/quizzes/tests, the academic answer to "exercises". However, this sucks all of the life out of math and explains why I was originally despised/feared math, routinely failed math classes, and was headed to graduate school as a music composition student and not a MATH guy. However, one day (probably much like you), I realized that math in its application was an uber-powerful language. If it is not true that much of the world performs itself in the language of mathematics, it is at least true that much of what the world performs can be understood by describing it in the language of mathematics. We do it all the time, and this is kind of why we made up the language in the first place. This observation motivates my final endorsement: don't simply study math because it's cool. Find a field that you're interested in like weather prediction, fluid flow, predator-prey relationships, economics, investing, astronomy, etc. and study the math in the context of that interest. I think that you'll find the pursuit more organic and rewarding. For example, it is one thing to solve an ordinary differential equation in a homework exercise, but it is quite another to then use your solution to reveal how species populations destabilize when ecologies are destroyed, be able to predict if it will rain tomorrow at your house, or retire on the merit of your stock portfolio that you based around a simple differential model (good luck with that one!) Applied math explorations like this are available to tenured professors all the way down to high school students, and you can slide up the scale as you become more mathematically sophisticated.
P.S. Once again SCREW MATH BOOKS. What you really need is software like Maple or Mathematica or whatever would be useful to you. After you get to the point where you could push through any computation with pencil and paper if the power went out and you absolutely had to, it is better to unload some of the "tougher" computations onto a computer so that you can enjoy more of the forest and less of the trees. Enjoy!!
http://mathworld.wolfram.com It's free and it has everything I've ever needed to look up. Beats digging out the old Trig Books :-)
"Excuses are like asses, everyone has one and they all stink." - Adam Corrola
Not too long ago I was helping a roomate through a remedial math class he was taking at community college. The text books were horrible. Without me, the poor guy would never have gotten the idea of negative numbers.
They let him out of high school? Holy crap!
The best way to learn math is in a classroom with an instructor who lectures a little and expects student participation a lot. But since you can't be a full-time student, you'll have to make do without it for the most part. I strongly reccommend against striking out on your own until you've taken the full calculus sequence, though. Whether you need to start at the beginning or not is at your discretion, but take actual courses with an actual teacher up through multivariable calc, which will be the third semester or fourth/fifth quarter.
Whether or not it's useful to put undergraduates through a course in proof-writing before jumping into advanced courses is subject to a lot of debate (my position is that it is useful but not essential). But in your case, since you won't have feedback from a professor when you're trying to learn the advanced stuff, it's an absolute necessity. If possible, take a course like that from a local college or university. If you can't, I reccommend a textbook called Chapter Zero by Carol Schumacher. Carol was my academic adviser at Kenyon College, and I took a class from her based on that book. You won't learn a lot of math from it, but you'll learn what math is, and you'll learn how to learn math.
After that, go to mathworld.wolfram.com and look around. It's a great resource for learning stuff, and even better for finding topics you want to explore further. Find something that sounds interesting and that you can basically understand the description of. A lot of colleges and universities have course catalogs available online--find some schools teaching an undergraduate class on the topic you picked, then look for the most common textbook. Buy it. Read it, working through problem sets, until you get tired of it. Go back to mathworld and repeat.
The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear. Prof. Starbird is an exceptional instructor who illustrates insights into calculus using layman's terms. I took three calculus related courses during the course of high school and college, yet found these six tapes to be incredibly enlightening.
Be sure to buy them when they're on sale! They're $54.95 today (2 Jul 02) but retail for as high as $199.95, I believe.
Enjoy,
Helevius
Surely you mean imaginary and not negative numbers. I can't imagine someone completing high school without knowing what negative numbers are.
I know public schools are bad, but they aren't that bad, are they?
The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
1. You say you have developed an interest in math. Does that mean you like the idea of yourself knowing a lot of math or you are interested in a field that you want to know more of.
2. If it is the first one, then pay lots of money to learn lots of math that you will never use and halfway thru give up. At least you won't have regrets.
3. If it's the other one, then you know what fields of mathematics that you need to study in order to further understand the subject that you are interested in. Find the things that don't make sense or topics that don't make sense and make a list of subjects that you need to learn. You can go the local university library and read some of the books there which will lead you to other question and so on. That will be the true fun way of doing it.
Books are also useful, but you don't get the feedback and support of other students. You also lose the motivation of the professor. Math is hard, and most of us need all the help we can get.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
we had to brush up on our calculus for some biological trend analysis. Check out this link.
http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/
Hey, you know, going back to college is kind of a hassle, even if you go the community college route. There is a more subversive, sneaky way to get the same effect, and here it is:
1. Go to your local college and get a copy of their student handbook (the one with the course listings, not the smaller practical app book). Look up the courses used in a mathematics curriculum, and look over the math department's suggested curriculum.
2) Wait until the first week of classes, and walk into the bookstore, buying the texts for whichever semester you're currently "doing". Then amscray.
3) Repeat until you've completed the reading for an entire undergrad degree.
This approach is far better than relying on Borders or Barnes and Noble to help you out. They usually don't have the good stuff. And, this way your readings are being led by a prof. Sometimes, you'll be able to scam actual supplemental notes!
If you really have balls of iron, you can just sneak into the back of the class and catch the lectures. Just make sure you ditch the first day so you don't get sucked into that "My name is foo and I'm studying bar" routine. But, this is risky. I'd just go for the books, personally.
And, anyway, the college doesn't care if you buy their books. They're all about profit anyway.
Just an idea...
if you don't care about getting the paper that says you took the class, then just go and sit in on a class. all of the college classes that I have been in, none (aside from the first day) took attendance and as long as it was large enough and had space, you wouldn't be noticed.
I have the luxury of living near both Harvard and MIT, but I don't have the luxury of the time to go to the classes since I work all day.
otherwise, I would be all over it.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
If you are looking at this as something to enhance your career, or help start a new career, then you need it on your transcript, and getting into a course will be worth it, even if you have to pay out the nose.
If this is a hobby, then I suggest you avoid the college. A lot of people learn better by themselves, but more importantly, you play with the things you want to play with. Colleges hand you curriculums and expect you to pass tests over what they consider important, etc.
On your own, you can study bizarre things that few colleges touch(and won't touch at an undergrad level) not because they are hard, but because they are nontraditional. Surreal numbers are fascinating and not hard at all with a solid high school background, but I've never seen a formal college course use them much less teach them. Fractals and Chaos theory are slowly becoming mainstream, but right now they are hard to find, and while you won't master them without a strong grasp of a lot of calculus and number theory, you can get your feet wet with them in high school(I did....) Game theory is the same way.
And if you don't know what type of math you are interested in, pick up some of Martin Gardner's Mathematical Recreations books(he has a whole series.) They generally are written at the college freshmen level and they touch on a lot of bizarre and interesting types of math that most colleges don't formally deal with, and they are targeted at people doing this recreationally.....
2) If you don't have grey hairs, you can probably pass for a student with a little creative wardrobe work.
Here's some pointers on blending in:
GMD
watch this
I've found that Schaum's study guides are great for learning mathematics on your own. Clear concise descriptions of how and why things work, and lots of sample problems. Oh, and do the problems man, do them all. You won't get good at math without lots and lots of problem solving experience.
Another great tool is Mathematica. It will do the problems for you, which you don't want to make a habit of. But, when you're stuck, it really helps out, and it will show you all the work. Mathematica helped me through many high-level math courses, but it's pretty spendy. If your daughter is in college, she can probably get you the student version for around $100 or so. I worked in the Mathematics department at a large university, so I had the full version to use for free since it was installed on all of their machines. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
I was an undergraduate math major (graduated 5 years ago). I was excellent at it, but unfortunately in the "real world" there is little opportunity to use abstract mathematics.
So of course it's easy to miss out on doing math unless you have the time and patience for doing it in your "spare time". Even then, there are certain hurdles that I'd like to overcome. Perhaps some of you can help.
I can also confidently say that it is nearly impossible to really learn advanced math (beyond 3rd year undergraduate) from books alone. The major problem is that math is a very highly compressed field. The notation is usually different from book to book, and the notation is extremely terse. There is rarely any reasonable prose describing why or what motivated a step along the way. Combine this with difficult ideas, and you find that having someone who can help explain why and how to go forward is infinitely more helpful than going alone.
with beginning undergraduate topics like calculus or differential equations, you have comparatively expansive textbooks to describe what and why and how the math was developed along with how it works. It's also usually very applied mathematics. There are plenty of example "real world" problems where you can see how they work. Try that with n-sphere packing or coding theory and it just doesn't work.
However getting access to teachers for advanced courses (beyond 2nd year undergrad) is usually very hard. First, they aren't taught except at universities, (even the small colleges rarely have more than 3 or 4 courses for post 3rd year undergrad) then second they have 1 section and sometimes only tought every other year or every 3rd semester or whatever.
So it's actually hard to even find a place and time to do things like knot theory, algebraic topology, or complex variable analysis.
Has anyone else who has an undergraduate math major been able to go on to do more math other than as a graduate student? I'd love to hear some suggestions as to how to do it.
I was going to take a number theory course at UC berkeley summer session, but it was too much time commitment (commute to berkeley and back, plus 2 hrs lecture 4 times a week)
Has anyone been successful at finding a mentor outside of these channels?
thanks if you can help
((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x))) http://www.endpointcomputing.com a scientific approach to custom computing.
If I were you, I'd tutor my daughter first. See if you can keep up with her! It won't be easy, because any school pushes hard. Don't be discouraged, but realize that your memory fades and you have to push a little to get a coherent body of information in you mind all at once to see the interrelationships. You have two advantages over your daughter: you have seen the material before and you can concentrate on it alone.
The next step, if you don't have time for night class, is to find a peer who is reviewing for some kind of test. An engineer studying for the Engineer in Training Exam (EIT, formerly FE) will be boning up on all sorts of practical tricks. This will be less than satisfying, but it can establish a relationship that works in the future. Who knows, you might find someone who just wants to study. Teaching others is what graduate students are forced to do. It's a great way to learn becuase the holes in your knowledge stand out sharply when you try to explain things to others =:] This is probably the best means you have to expand your knowledge in the short term.
If you decide to go it alone, and you can do this, try to follow a college course. Go to any university web page and get the course curriculum that interests you. Then find out what the professor recomends for the course where you are. If it's not on a web page, go to their bookstore and see what book is on the shelf. It's generally the best, and at least represents much careful thought. Try to follow the class sylabus. The pace is usualy challenging and involves much homework every night! If you are interested in engineering math, I strongly recomend the CRC Math Handbook as general reference and the appropriate Schwam's Outline for the course you try.
Earning an ordinary undergraduate degree while working takes an effort few people are willing to make. You will be forced to study stuff you don't like under people you like even less. Imagine your least favorite grade school English teacher and give them ten times the power over your future. If you are willing to risk poverty, divorce and great disatisfaction you could quit your job. Don't expect to finish in less than four years. If you keep your job, don't expect to finish in less than eight. If you push too hard you will end up loathing the very thing that now entertains you. All that said, people have done it and done very well.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
<AOL>METOO</AOL>I've got to admit that when I was a young pup just out of high school (not that I'm THAT old now...), I thought community college/technical college was a joke, and it's forced down students' throats in high school that if you want to get anywhere in life, you must have a college degree.
What I really needed was someone to sit me down and say, "Look. College is a bunch of stuff that's just like high school but ten times worse, and you'll be bored and disgusted with it. You won't start independant thinking courses until your Junior year. You'd be better off taking a vocational degree at a tech college"
What ended up happening was that I flunked out of one college, and got fed up with another, and started working. I built up my knowledgebase during my downtime at work, and voila! I'm doing NT administration because the job market sucks for "pure" Unix Admins where I am. So, I'm going back to college, taking a course in C at the community college near my house for US$11/Credit Unit + fees (~110 for the class I'm in), instead of taking one at the University near my work for US$400-700 + fees.
It's not too expensive, and it keeps me on my mental toes after a long day of clicking 'OK' and 'Next'.
Not only can I cash in and come out with an AA, or transfer the credits over to a university, but sometimes the community colleges offer certificate programs. The place I go offers certificates in Unix Admin, Cisco (with test prep for the Cisco certs), Database Admin, and even Video Game Programming in their CS discipline.
It's a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable. It's a lot wrong to say it's a suspension bridge.
Subject: "Mod parent up"
sig: "Moderators suck"
Does anyone else find this amusing?
Fooz Meister
Active involvement is the best way to learn math!
I'd rather be flying
"get in the game and stay in the game"
does anyone else think of Quake3 after reading this?
I knew I shoulda studied harder in High school.
IMHO, going to school would serve two ends. First, it would put you with others who HOPEFULLY want to learn and a professor (or grad student) who HOPEFULLY wants to teach. Second, and probably most important, here's another opportunity to teach your daughter a life lesson: Learning doesn't stop when you get out of school. She will also see you struggle and succeed with the some of the issues that she is dealing with. Good luck in whatever you decide!
Some people have a way with words, others not have way.
Calculus Primer:
7 5/ qid=1025647279/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-8828002-34688 55
8 5/ qid=1025647399/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-8828002-34688 55
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/09132324
Read it. Work the problems. Have fun.
While you're doing that also read David Berlinski's 'A Tour of the Calculus:'
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/06797478
This is an English language history of the calculus that is simply supurb.
If you get stumped by some of the algebra, ( which you really shouldn't), then grab that textbook of your daughter's, if you've done math before you don't need a class, just to work some problems to bring you back up to speed.
By the time you're through with these two books you'll either have sated your current mathmatical bent or have a much better idea of what you want long term.
Be warned though, Berlinski's book is likely to set you off on a math 'jag' that you may never recover from.
KFG
You say that you've taken up an interest in "Math" again. No offense, but from the sound of it, you weren't into math too much when you were younger. Odds are that the vast majority of "Math" that you were ever exposed to was mechanical equation manipulation. This tends to be tedious and very, very boring. Several people have asked, what do you want?, and I agree. More specifically, do you want to be good at manipulating equations? Or are you more interested in discovering neat mathisms that just blow your mind and permanently change your outlook on reality (and you don't mind if your mechanical skills are poor)? It will be easy to find classes to help you with your mechanical skills, and there are plenty of "fun math" books out there. There don't tend to be a lot of "fun math" classes, though hunt around and you might get lucky. The most important thing of all, IMHO, is to find a partner in crime. Pick a book and the two of you spend every other Saturday around a white board working through a handful of the easy excersises. When you get stuck, find somebody that knows more and ask. It won't take you long to get the gist of the topic. Then pick another book. Repeat until bored. You'll probably learn what you want or realize that you're actually much more serious about it within a year or two.
another good idea is if you meet someone who is extremely good in math, ask them to help! Most math heads enjoy speaking of math and enjoy helping people.
another idea is to see if there are any types of math clubs or friends or people you can meet that enjoy doing math that you can periodically meet with and hash out problems.
When I was in college my buddy and I would always do our math homework together at the library. He was much further in math then I was. If I had a problem I would just voice the problem out to him. About half the time, just saying the problem out loud would make me realize what the prob was but having him there for advice really helped me out.
Aliens? Magnetic Rings?! Bah! Who needs that when we have
I did this myself a couple years ago. I found it not nearly as hard as it seemed back when I was 20, mostly because I did the homework. :)
The best advice I can give you is to get the book "How to Ace Calculus" and follow the advice therein. The book is enlightening, engaging, and even funny.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
Public Library?
Im sure you could find a job at Arthur Anderson. Theyre looking for adults with interest in math now, after their "Hire adults with no math skills" program didnt pan out.
(not saying that my dad is some super-parent, but this is one of the fonder memories I have of my childhood)
My father was in college when I was young (until I was 7 or 8). Sometimes he would read his college-level textbooks to me. Since I didn't know any better, and I thought Dad was God (partly because he always told me, "I'm God, I know everything"), I didn't realize that the college textbooks were supposed to be over my head. Bottom line, for me anyway, was that it didn't especially matter what we were doing together for quality time so much as that we were spending quality time together. I am NOT an advocate of pushing your child to learn things that are beyond what is appropriate to fulfill your own fantasies, I just believe that kids are capable of understanding and enjoying a lot more than we give them credit for, especially when the teacher is a loving parent who is sharing their time with them instead of sending them off for lessons with someone who doesn't know them and doesn't have an emotional investment.
Two books that I remember fondly from my childhood, and that still serve as good reference books for number theory, are Mathematical Circus and Mathematical Magic Show, both by Martin Gardner. These were both really fun books that are also challenging reading for an adult. I originally picked them up because I thought they had cool names (kids love magic shows and circuses, ya know), and I picked them up again a few years ago and still found them entertaining and very informative. The author doesn't just write math books either--he is a well-known creator of puzzles and brainteasers and has done some annotated versions of literary classics. He seems to teach critical thinking rather than rote mathematics.
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
This is especially true for introductory classes at larger universities. I was a math teaching assistant at Ohio State in the late '70s. Typical introductory classes (algebra II through second quarter calculus) had about 150 to 180 students in a large lecture hall. Very easy to get lost in that size crowd. The recitation sections were taught by T.A.s like me with usually around 25 to 30 students. You would probably be noticed there. Generally, the exams were given at the lecture hall so you need to attend regularly enough to know when NOT to show up becuase IDs were checked at midterms and finals to make sure somebody wasn't sending in a substitute to get them through the class.
Generally, if you have a decent cover story like you've been away from it for a while (actually true) and just need a refresher before you jumb back into the next course (who knows, maybe someday), most (but not necessarily all) instructors would let you sit in as long as you don't create a disturbance. The school mainly wants to get paid if they're going to issue you a sheepskin. The instructor probably doesn't really care as long as nobody official notices and you're not a problem.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
If you would like an entertaining and highly informative overview of mathematics, check out Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg.
hey, me too, particularly the part about 10 raised to an irrational exponent z defined as e^(z ln[10])
here's my simple, two-step process for improving your math skills:
(1) put a calculus book in your bathroom
(2) eat a lot of spicy food
i thought, therefore i was...
Check out Project MATHEMATICS! [href="http://www.projectmathematics.com/], which was started by ex-JPL computer graphics god, Jim Blinn (he was once called "the 10 best programmers in the world"). He won a MacAurthur genius award, back around 91, for this series of educational math videos, after which he immediately bought a Ferrari and got a girlfriend. --DM
What is important, though, is that because I learned how to use it in physics, I still remember a lot of my calculus, and at the same time concepts that seemed initially counterintuitive from physics didn't become meaningful until I could understand the math behind them. So studying both might help you benefit more from your efforts.
nuke the moon
I have grey hairs and I go to class for
a second degree at night. Conspicuous?
hmm sometimes, but in calculus I there
were several people between 40 and 50.
I've seriously thought about sitting in
on a class like calculus II to get my
feet alittle wet before taking it officially.
Here is the dilemma though, you have to
be prepared to shrug your shoulders if
you are supposed to turn in a homework
and act like you don't care that you didn't
do it, and you will also have to avoid
quizzes and exams, and while most classes
like that at huge universities are like
being in a stadium, medium sized schools
may still take the initial roll. I thought
the potential for exposure to be, not high,
but not zero either.
NOBODY can beat the deal you get with a community college. Heck, your taxes subsidize it--so use it or lose it!
...well you see the dillema. :)
;)
:)
Community colleges have small classrooms (not halls) of 30 students or less, and the atmosphere is more loose. Each classroom comes with a LIVE professor to teach you, test you, motivate you, help you learn and answer questions! That's all part of the standard package! So real you can see/touch him or her! (Don't.)
And it's all for a couple hundred bucks! And the credits are accepted at universities and employers will take them, too.
There is a drawback to community colleges. Most administrators don't want to talk about it. 1) Because many "elitist" people disrespect community colleges as weak, a student could feel he shouldn't have to do the same difficulty work as students in universities. 2) And because you pay $40,000/year less than your friends for the same education, you could become very lazy. Because of these two things, one might feel less motivation to do well than a university student would have. And if one wants to transfer to a university afterwards with these grades,
NO BULL! I took University Physics I last semester at my community college. Everyone was very lazy. I personally did no work for some reason, and the class was not impossible. Ultimately, 25 out of 30 students had to withdraw. Some think the class was hard because the professor was a very smart MIT grad, but we like to think it's because of the effect I just described.
[Another plus: CC's have very lax withdrawal deadlines--we could withdraw up to two weeks before the final exam, I believe].
Seriously however, he said my community college was equivalent to MIT. But we all know that with little respect for CC's, it's hard to feel motivated to work as hard as MIT students do!!
So do be careful--even if you do great in good math class at a CC but end up with a hard-to-earn C grade, idiots might snicker at you.
DISCLAIMER: (I/my friend/my neighbor/my dog) (am/is/used to be/will be) the student body (trustee/president/vice president) of a CC located in (New England/New York/New Jersey.)
So I might be partly biased
Also, 58 percent of community college students are women.
Apparently, even TAYLOR & WASHINGTON went to a community college!
Cover your eyes and click this link!
Hey, I remember that show. (You'll need a canteen truck.) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0058811
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I taught high school math, so I might be a little bias.
Have you thought about finding a high school teacher to tutor you? Meet once a week and pay him/her x amount of dollars per week. Ask any of the high schoolers, they know who the good ones are. I would think most hs teachers would be happy to do it. They would probably have some older books they would give to you or sell cheap. This would give you more flexibility than a college class. Of cource you wouldn't get credit.
Also, if you don't care about credit, just show up at a local college class. Buy the book, sit in on lectures, take the test(don't hand it in). Many profs wouldn't mind.
I recently went back to school to get my M.S. in Computer Science and the book A Transition to Advanced Mathematics helped me get back up to speed after not doing any serious math for a while. It gave me the solid foundation I need to get through the difficult math ahead.
It starts out with basic logic, moves on to various proof methods, then to set theory, induction, relations, functions, groups.
This material is to a person who studies mathematics as learning how to read is to a person who studies literature,
Arithmetic Refresher by A.A.Klaf
Dover Publications:ISBN 0-486-21241-6
Great Start for renewed interest in Math.
Check out all his books!
If you think about the numbers for a bit:
... + 1/1.5)
... + 1/1.5)
:)
166... == 1.5 * (10^n + 10^n-1 +
...664 == 6 * (10^n + 10^n-1 +
Then it's just a simple cancellation
(I initially tried just having 1 at the end
of the expansion, but then you are left with
an extra half - but that nicely explains the
extra 2 you get when you multiply the 6 through)
I'm surprised I haven't seen any reference to Usenet news groups. There are several math related Usenet groups including:
sci.mathh .
alt.algebra
alt.algebra.help
sci.mathematics
sci.math.num-analysis
sci.math.researc
sci.math.symbolic
In general I would first recommend taking a community college or University course (my experience is that either can be acceptable, although community colleges do not offer advanced math courses). However, for a cheaper alternative, get a good math textbook; perhaps, the one being used in a nearby college math course. Then, work through the book and if you get stumped, ask questions on Usenet.
You might also want to work through some supplemental problems. There are several math books in the "Schaums" series that have lots of pre-worked example problems for you to practice on.
Good Luck.
For calculus, consider the Teaching Company video course "Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear". It's 24 lectures and only $65 with shipping. And Teaching Company stuff is almost always super. They're at www.teachco.com.
I would like to take math courses, but can't take the time out to attend traditional classes during the evening. Can anyone recommend a college or university that has a substantial number online math course offerings? I've found many communicty colleges that have one or two basic courses, but that's it. I'd be interested in an entire online undergrad program!
thanks.
More physics than math, but a great place to start. If you buy the series (or tape it off PBS), you can watch it again and again until you finally learn the concepts. It opens a whole new world in math and physics. It was recorded and animated (by Pr. Blinn, no less!) in the mid-80s, and is still relevant.
-S
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
- G.H. Hardy wrote several books on math for the interested layperson: A Course of Pure Mathematics, A Mathematician's Apology, and one titled something like Mathematics for the Common Man.
- Lancelot Hogben's Mathematics for the Million is a standard of this sort; Hogben's ideology gets a bit in the way--he, very much unlike Hardy, has very little truck for pure mathematics.
- Isaac Asimov's Realm of Numbers and Realm of Algebra are classics--and, alas, darned hard to find.
- Jagjit Singh wrote several books on technical and mathematical matters for the layperson, including a very good one on information theory.
As someone else has mentioned, Dover reprints a LOT of good books on many subjects, especially mathematics.Now...a lot of the popular mathematics books concentrate on analysis. Internet Ninja didn't specify a particular interest--algebra (in the abstract sense, i.e. groups, rings, fields, and the like), topology, category theory, and so on. Knowing whether IN has specific interests would help.
A good female friend of mine in the US has a son who could read when he was just a little over 2. Yesterday I had to explain to him on the phone how a DC motor works, because he wanted to connect the 110V mains (he lives in the US) to his toy rocket and I tried to explain to him that it is damn dangerous and wouldn't do a bit of good given that it is AC and not DC and that the motor just wasn't designed for such high fields even if it were DC.
He is so damn clever, can already do simple math, but he really needs to be able to solve equasions, derive functions and stuff because of the stuff he is interested in (how high will the rocket go, how can I make it go up faster).
I am a Master of Electrical Enginering so I have quite a good knowledge about Mathematics in general and also higher math. But how do you go about teaching a child that? I can also only help so much because I live in Germany (still) and my friend in the US. What can I recommend him to read so it is not too boring and understandable at the same time?
What can I do just using a phone and an instant messenger?
Children's physics books are way too simple for him, adult physics books require way too much mathematical knowledge.
Feel free to email me at germanbirdmanATchaospowerDOTde
Oh, and while you're at it, if you finish it, share your insight with /. since most people here own it, yet have never made it past the 3rd chapter!
You pose an interesting question, and I've seen a wealth of valuable responses. What I haven't seen (having read a fair number of comments, but by no means all of them) is any consideration of how you learn. After nearly ten years working in other fields, I chose to switch to Computer Science. As my first degree was in Sociology, I had a bit of catching up to do. A couple of degrees later, and after a whole lot of Math courses, I now know I learn best by applying principles. I need to understand the underlying theory, but more than that, I need to SOLVE PROBLEMS. That is not a universal requirement. There are those among us who can derive solutions from a purely theoretical base. I'm not among them. If you are like me, you will do well taking classes from any instructor qualified to teach at the level you find yourself. In other words, read the theory and then take a class at a community college (cheap) to practice the application. On the other hand, if you are one of the fortunate ones who sees applications directly from theory, I advise you to go straight to a university near you. It will cost more on the face of it ($/CH), but save you time. Though it's trite, time really is money. If you intend to apply your learning (and I can tell you there are MANY ways to apply Math and make a killing), and are capable of learning this way, it's your best solution. Good Luck!
The world of achievement has always belonged to the optimist. -- J. Harold Wilkins
As many have said, it depends on what your goal is -- so set one.
If you don't know exactly, that's ok -- you're not being required to do this, so you can change your mind whenever you feel like it. So, spend some time thinking about what you think you'd like to do First -- you can always do something else later.
After you pick a first goal, focus on that and find out what you need to know to get there -- it probably won't be just one thing.
For instance, I got interested in Rubik's Cube and wanted to understand the math behind it -- so I started learning Group Theory -- that led to other things. Now I want to have a better understanding of Wiles' proof of FLT (I've a reasonable background in Theory of Computing/etc., so it's not completely out of the question) There are lots of things I didn't know anything about when I started, but I'm making progress, and having that as a long range goal is helping me find more accessible topics to start with.
I've been spending time working on these kinds of Math as a hobby for several years. Among the things I've found that work:
1. browse through the books in the bookstores and/or library to see if you can find one that's about a topic of interest, and at a level you can understand, or almost understand. There's a tremendous variability in that regard.
2. Ask people who are familiar with the area you're interested in for some recommendations -- If the books are too advanced, see what books they reference.
3. When you have a book you like, read it and do all the problems -- you can't learn Math by reading -- you have to get the experience. -- If you pick an area where there are proofs, work on understanding the proofs -- that's where the information is.
4. Keep the book in the bathroom and read it instead of that magazine.
5. Find a friend/group of friends -- As someone else said, it's much easier to learn with others. Take turns explaining how a proof / topic works.
6. Take (or audit) courses in a local college -- but beware of the audit-trap -- being too busy to do the homework -- if you don't do the homework you're probably wasting your time/money in the course.
7. use the web -- there're a lot of papers / people with "weird" hobbies (like math) and they often like to talk about it. -- Note that your group could be a newsgroup/mailinglist/chatroom...
8. There are lots of used books available on the Web -- so you can often find that "Great" book that's now out of print -- and at a reasonable price.
9. Don't give up, but don't be afraid to add a new, easier, goal to get to first.
I got laid off last year and after rounds of frustrating interviews (I was lucky to get some), I decided to follow my heart, do what I truly love on top of making sure never to go thru this again.
-First of all, I strongly believe that the current state of science is fundamentally flawed and in order to make great strides you have to question everything and keep in mind all those assumptions we have been making all this time.
-The likes of Stephen Hawking are snake oil sales men. Avoid their ilk. (Read Wolfram's work.)
- Never ever take anything for granted. Find out how those formulas that you're learning in class were developed. (you normally get the initial intro and then go onto how they work).
- Avoid pop - mathematics. like prime # generation.
- Research math history with little western influence.
(there's alot to be learned from the Egyptians, Middle Easterns and Chineese not to mention some African and S.American work)
Read Bell's books for more conventional history.
( I stress the purpose of studying the history is to see how what we use came about. )
The underlying theme here is to avoid rote learning.
Decided to go to Law school and take advanced science courses in Chem, Biology, Physics and maths. No Holds barred. People think I'm crazy, but many don't know the likes of "Leibniz".
Anyway 6 months into my madness and I've discovered:
- doing your own math study and research is a lot better than attending most college classes. But you need good contacts that can help you when you get stuck or motivate you. Take some math classes strictly for networking and in the process question everything you are taught. Ironically, few instructors will tolerate you. Those who do should go in your address book. The rest don't know what they are doing.
Remember advanced maths is easier than the basics.
If anything looks too complicated it's either wrong or has a more elegant solution.
If you cannot find that elegant solution go back and question everything even commonly assumed proofs. (that's where the knowledge of history comes in).
If you cannot explain something to your kids then it's not perfect and needs further exploration.
... I gotta run more logical info later.
Talk to the professor first. They'll generally be thrilled to have someone there who is genuinely interested in learning. I had a few dropins when I was TA'ing and found them a nice break from pre-meds. (My favorite was the dog who attended a genetics class every day with his surfer dude owner. It was a 75 minute class period and the students mostly dozed off after 40, but the dog paid careful attention to every word.)
If you want to get graded, though, auditing is probably necessary.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
If I may suggest, perhaps using the machine to help you?
After all, computers do Mathematics much faster than we do and are quite good at it.
I would consult a good book on the topic that combines computing with Mathematics.
Here are some good books in my library you can also get at your local Barnes and Noble or order online:
Astronomical Algorithms, Jean Meeus, Willmann-Bell,Inc. ISBN 0-943396-35-2
Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics J.M.A. Danby, Willmann-Bell, ISBN 0-943396-20-4
You might also want to check out:
http://www.wolfram.com for Mathematica. I think this is the single most important program I possess, and it runs natively on Linux.
Without it my understanding of Mathematics would be quite dim indeed.
I use the machine and computer programming to understand mathematics from a mechnical end first, since I know what operations fundamentally have to happen to obtain a answer once I program the computer.
This yields, more often than not, basic intuition into the more abstract problems one faces in the celestial mechanics field or even pure mathematics IMHE.
Many of the algorithms presented are in BASIC or Fortran and are fairly easy to understand.
I have converted quite a few of these algorithms into Java Computing Objects. I am building a gravitational computing engine in Java to enable my telescope to be remote controlled and also track asteroids/comets.
Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
What are you, some kind of wussy? You want to learn without putting in any effort? I've got my fulltime job, wife and kid, two houses, aging parents to support, and I manage to find time for 9 hours of night class per week, plus the associated homework. Turn off the damned TV, put down that cheeseburger, and stop yer whining.
Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers
by Jan Gullberg
about $50 US and a great read for anyone interested in mathematics.. it covers mathematics from its most humble origins (the history of counting systems, etc) all the way through differential equations. Very nice book for enthusiasts and novices alike!
I went to university as a young, green freshman thinking I wanted to learn. After a couple of years there I realized that all I wanted was a degree. I'm a person who is genuinely interested in learning and I follow the latest math and science news with great interest. However at university they spend a lot of time teaching you procedures for applying formulas, because those make the best kinds of test questions. I find that type of knowledge very mundane. I would rather decide for myself the kinds of things I want to learn.
Your experiences may vary, but I would have dropped out of university a lot sooner if I had thought I could do so without endangering my earning potential. But there are a lot of people who attend university because they want to. Do you really think most of these students would pay tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, to get the official diploma if they didn't have to? Many of these students used to stand in line to get a refund for the $5 "voluntary" contribution to the school paper.
Your analogy is stupid. As if the $50,000 that one might spend to get a "brand name" education somehow relates to whether you will pay $20 for a CD or steal it off the net. I can only speak for myself, but when I buy a CD, I buy it for the music. I don't steal it off the net because I'm a fairly honest person, but I will buy it from a used CD store if I can get a better price.
Anyway, back on the original topic. I think the story submitter needs to decide what kind of knowledge about math he wants to learn. I have an interest in math, but I don't need to apply it in real life, so I am content to read about cryptography, logic, fractals, Fermat's last theorem, and all the pop-math stuff. You can find excellent books for the lay reader, with the best probably being "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid". Martin Gardner's columns from Scientific American have all been archived and published in book form. As for learning whole subject areas, try to skim a variety of books rather than reading one in depth. That way, you will get a better grasp of the subject matter (and if you find that you prefer one of the books over the others, at least you have a point of reference).
-a
How to rationalize theft.
I gotta stop multitasking - that's 6 and 24, not 6 and 4. The '...4' becomes '...40' and we need to add 24 (not 4) to get it back to a '...64' pattern.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Poster #1: "I'm a Ph.D. in Math at the University of Zimbabwe. Applied math is a waste time. You should learn nothing but theory and proofs. If you try and do anything useful with math, then you're a fuckin' sellout. PS: I love Goedel."
49%: Right on!
Poster #2: "You don't need any college at all! I make $600,000 a year coding VB, and all I did was get a pirated copy of VB and bought a book of Teach Yourself Visual Basic ASP.NET.COM+.ActiveX In 42 Days For Dummies. PS. Math is for weenies.
Another 49%: Right on!
Me: Theory and practice are both important in the world. Ignore one at your peril. Learn both, and you will be better off. Tilt the mix to either end according to your interest.
The remaining 2%: -1, Flamebait
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
You might check out "Mathmatics, from the birth of numbers" by Jan Gullberg. It covers a wide range of math (from anchient & modern number systems to trig to fractals to Fourier series) though probably not in depth enough to learn it well. You'd want more specific books for areas you really wanted to learn, but it'd give you the idea of what is out there.
I was in the exact same position. A community college will be much cheaper, will have real teachers who teach, etc. Perfect for covering trig, advanced algebra, and first year calculus if you get that far. When you get about halfway through the first year of calculus you can reevaluate what you've learned, and where you want to go with math. Besides, up to this point you're doing a lot of rote memorization and a cc prof with a master's is just as good as anyone else.
I got to this point as a 32 year old engineering major when the country began to "turn swords into ploughshares." I switched to a CIS degree (BS business) and haven't regretted its fence-straddling properties a bit.
Hi, I wanted study math for the FE test. I had a science background, not engineering one. So I did this: 1. Brought Precalculus from Schaum's Series. This got my algebra rolling. 2. Then I got hold of a fantastic book on Calculus - Calculus Made Easy by S. Thompson and edited by the great Martin Gardener. This will give you a self contained foundation for calculus. 3. That should get you started. You can use Discrete Math by Liu if that is the way you want to go. If Comp Sci math intrests you then Knuth's Concrete Math is a good book to get all that you need to know.
They're very much an "engineer's" view of math; their emphasis is more on results than on process or proof, but they're a great buy and very much emphasize the learn it by doing it approach.
If you are just curious about math...other suggestions have been made that make a lot of sense...especially auditing a college class and reading old textbooks.
However, if you are thinking on building on this curiousity for a new/expanded degree and need college credit then your choices narrow. If you need a firm understanding of the basics...a community college gives the best "bang for the buck". Around here, the local community college is about one-third the cost of a traditional university.
If you already have a firm understanding of the basics...I highly recommend NetMath at http://netmath.math.uiuc.edu/ . The courses offered are Calculus on up. Its a bit more expensive than attending a traditional university, and substantially more than a community college. And you need to be self-motivated. But there is plenty of help available, through chat hours and an assigned mentor (basically a Teachers Assistant) you share with a few other students. You can work it around your own schedule which, to me, makes up for the higher cost. Its offered through the University of Illinois and thus accepted as "real" college credit. And you use Mathematica in your studies which is really a powerful piece of software.
Definitely check it out.
I would highly recommend this book!
As a professional mathematician I can say
that this book gets to the heart of what
mathematics is about, yet does so in a
very accessible way. People with only a
limited mathematics background should be
able to enjoy this book and come to a much
better understanding of why mathematics is
such an amazing discipline.
One site I like to visit is grey labyrinth. They semi-regularily put up new puzzles and a lot of them use some applied math. Not really a whole solution, but something to look over and point you in a few areas of math you can research on the net (like probability, induction, and others).
-no broken link
I have to wonder if this sudden interest in Math is do to recent drug use like LSD.
Everytime you look at porn a devil gets their horns.
While I was looking for a tutor, I discovered that math departments maintain a list of grad students interested in tutoring. Those lists didn't work for me, because none of the people on those lists knew category theory. But looking on those lists should work fine for tutoring in the kind of things you're looking for. The great thing about grad students is that they combine the following features: (a) some of them will soon be professors famous for their teaching, and (b) they are as poor as church mice and will take any reasonable offer.
If you just want a quick and not so dry set of lectures, pick up a video tape or DVD from Standard Deviants:
http://www.standarddeviants.com
I viewed a few of their tapes on subjects I was interested in, and they gave me enough to get started on my own.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics
Why is there only one Monopolies commission?
Your don't really know what mathematics is all about.
How often do you hear brilliant mathematical break throughs?
It's because such narrow minded views are held by so called mathematicians.
Anyone with a love and a passion can learn mathematics at any age. (yes from 1yr - death).
Poor and almost uneducated, Ramanujan used that one book to teach himself and became on of the world's greatest mathematical minds. An outsider, he began corresponding with mathematicians at Oxford. They eventually brought him to England where the food killed him, I think.
The link is to a pretty good background on him - I think it's pretty inspiring to anyone about to undertake what you are - Here's a bit from the site:
Yes, this is the same guy who gets a mention in 'Good Will Hunting' - Back in high school in the early '80s, my math teacher had his picture above the blackboard and began each year by telling us about him - His personal hero.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
Go to a local community college library and I'm sure they will have several elemntary mathematics texts. Peruse them until you find one you like then order it on amazon.com. The truth is college classes won't let the material passively diffuse into your brain. Either way you're going to have to do some work and it will hurt a little. A college class serves as pressure to learn the material at a structured rate so it won't take you an infinite amount of time to learn the book. Take it one step at a time, maybe one section of a chapter a night and do a lot of the problems.
, then learn on your own. In my experience it is much faster, but can lead to many road blocks.
Buy used school books online for cheap. Get at least 2-3 in each subject. That may seem stupid but sometimes you cannot understand a concept and if you read from a different author, then it helps.
Learn the subjects in this order
Basic Algebra, Trig, and Geometry
Precalculus
Calculus, Multivariate Calculus, Linear Algebra
On the side you can also learn Number Theory, Set Theory, Symbolic and Predicate Logic, and basic Combinatorics if you want. None of those subjects require much background.
After this background you have many options, depending on what you like
Probability and Statistics: self explanatory. Fun real world problems. Probability makes heavy use of calculus, be warned.
Analysis: the construction of calculus from the ground up. very hard.
Differential Equations: the most applicable of mathematics. Lots of calculus used to solve real physical problems.
Modern/Abstract Algebra: this is not what you think it is. I cannot describe this to the uninitiated in less than three paragraphs.
Topology: study of surfaces, spaces, and stuff. Fun with paper, playdoh, and strings.
Differential Geometry: how to use calculus when space is not flat, immediate applications to many problems in engineering and General Relativity.
Give your self a scheduled hour or two. Make sure you do it regularly. It has to become a habit, just like exercising, eating, and grooming.
Read through each chapter slowly and do a couple of the home work problems. If you get stuck, reread the chapter carefully. If you are still stuck pull out a book of the same subject by a different author and read that.
You will probably find that you are able to move much faster on your own (given that you understand the material). However as you proceed you may start to forget old things. Do not be a afraid to go back an work problems from previous chapters.
It is not important to work every problem, nor is it important to read every chapter. In the forward, some times the author may point out what chapters contain the more important material.
Good luck and remember math is difficult for everyone. That is why we do it, because it is the ultimate mental challange, the ultimate mental game. And the rewards are great.
TableCurve -- this is a special case of number-crunching software, used to perform typical statistical analyses, and the integrated graphics are very good for most practical applications of statistics.
Books:
The Nuts and Bolts of Proofs -- the heart of correct math is showing your work, and this book shows you how.
The Data Game -- Controverses in Social Science Statistics -- this really puts you in touch with the kinds of numbers you hear bandied about on the news, and what those numbers mean.
The Maple V Learning Guide -- this comes with Maple (and presumably Matlab if you get it with Maple) and teaches more than a typical undergraduate mathematics program in about 270 pages. Actually, you have to delve into the hypertext documentation of Maple to get at all the calculus, linear algebra, statistics, etc., but it's all in there.
Studies in Inductive Logic and Probability -- actually there were two volumes published in 1980, and one or both might have gone out of print.
What If there were No Significance Tests -- this overpriced volume (which you should be able to get for much less from the publisher's site, www.erlbaum.com that doesn't seem to be working right now) explains exactly what soft scientists (e.g., psychologists) mean when they say something is true.
100 Statistical Tests -- this reasonably priced but somewhat advanced, applied book will tell you how to tell whether something is true, even if you have to use indirect or partially correlated measurements. The author has provided tools with what you can quickly find the appropriate test(s) for most situations I can imagine.
What about "A First Course In Calculus" by celebrated mathematician Serge Lang (humbling title for a 700-page book, by the way), just as a start? Then, you can go through other introductory book in the same yellow collection (UTM, Springer-Verlag). Later, you can decide to look at harder stuff. Of course, this requires a lot of discipline, so that is why you have to make it fun by applying your new knowledge immediately. If you know Java, for instance, why not try to design a fun little application (or even a full-featured library) for every chapter that you successfully complete? This is also why the Lang book is a good first choice. It contains important foundations, and you can write cool graphical programs that use them (visual applications will be more rewarding, as you can share them with your family and friends).
Easy, first get a shitty janitorial job at the local college, wait till professor post a challenge, quickly solve the problem but when professor notices you act disturbed. Get ready for a flood of juicy goverment jobs. And remember, its not your fault.
Vlad.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
I have been a college professor for close to twenty years. I have never, ever heard of anyone ever being sent away from a math class because they weren't registered.
Thats right, just show up.
A degree is secondary to an education. Go ahead, drop in. Let the professor know why you are there, and he will be overjoyed to have someone who is interested.
I am a math professor at an enormous state university. Guess what? Not only do I care about my students - I also have something to say.
I went to a private college. It took me about a term between the time I got interested in math till I figured out that my professors were much more into performing in front of an audience than they were into math.
For imature people, private schools are the way to go, but if you are driven and you really want to know about math, there is no substitute for ESU.
Math ended up being my sixth major - so after being one month away from an English Lit degree, I had to re-learn all of the basics, I had my mom track down all my old texts, but one of the best flat-out ref's were the series put out by Cliff's, yes as in Cliff's notes. The books are about 300 pgs long and cover Euclidean Geomotry, Calculus, Advanced Calculus, Algebra etc... and are pretty good. Good luck.
Community colleges vary in quality wildly from location to location. I wouldn't trust Burlington County Community college (Burlington County, NJ, where I currently live) with anything more advanced than introductory single variable calculus. On the other hand, the Philadelphia Inquirer did a story a few years back where they had some students attending the University of Pennsylvania come out to Montgomery County CC for a few classes of freshman physics and calculus. The community college students were using the same text as the ivy leaguers, and were proceeding at the same pace. Also, the sudents found the quality of instruction higher at the CC.
As a basically uninformed guess, I'd assume that community colleges in tech. boom areas that do a lot of night-school business are better able to fund the more advanced courses (and hire the better teachers) than community colleges in areas that don't provide lots of night-class business.
ok i thought about this cause its an interesting question and i truely think you need to be goal oriented.. at least at first.. i highly recommend sticking to REAL maths though.. by that i mean actual theorems and proofs.. anything else is like the difference between learning rote and understanding... and can i suggest you set as a goal understanding ... *bernsteins theorem* (from group theory) and/or (in another direction) *calculus of variations*..
.. and they arnt to far further.. both are covered in second year which makes them good goals.. just ahead of what you've understood in the path.. and they/(or the process of understanding them) will probably force you to reinterpret your previous understanding of their respective fields.. actually i tell a lie there is heaps of third year level stuff that will blow your mind.. in analysis for instance, did you know that if you assume that there is an axiom called the axiom of choice anyway its implications include being able to take a 3dsphere in RxRxR and rearranging to give two spheres of equal volume! and from there its only just begining.. but one theorem at a time, eah.. ;)
i'm am guessing you are not familiar with either if you've only been as far as first year. but they were the most interesting two theorems in my degree (honors math)
Towards the end of my mathematics degree I discovered the greatest secret for ***REALLY*** enjoying and getting into any mathematical subject -- simply ask the other students who there favourite math lecturers were.
In my final year I only took courses that were taught by those individuals which were regarded as gifted lecturers or who could enjoy themselves in class with their students. It was the VERY BEST year I ever had in school and one which even today (15 years afterwards) brings a smile to my face. I have shared this secret with a dozen young students (co-op students, children of friends and co-workers, etc) and each and every one has repeatedly thanked me for it. Ask other students who they really enjoyed being with and why and try to make your decision based on their answers. You might be pleasantly surprised
Of course, some places (like MIT) put their lectures on the web now. You can view Strang's linear algebra lectures on the web--you can't do much better than that (I leave out the link--no need to burden his site, but if you really care, it's easy to find).
I was in a similar situation, albeit without the wife and kids, and here is what I did:
The university where I'm currently doing my undergrad (Waterloo, Canada) offers distance ed courses in math, at both the high school and university level. Since I had a really poor mathematical background initially, I started by redoing all the math I took in high school (pre-cal, cal, linear algebra) thru their distance ed program. I worked on the material at home and I also got a private tutor who was a math grad student to help me. A lot of my friends were pure math grad students at the time, so talking about math with them helped a lot as well. I found that the distance ed courses were extremely well designed, and I could call up my profs to talk to them when I needed help. I had always thought of distance ed as second best to taking a class in person, but these classes were seriously 10x better than the math classes I took in high school.
Each class cost something like 125$ + a 40$ book.
You work on the material at your own pace. When you're ready to write the exam, you ask for the university to send it to you.
This approach worked fairly well for me. Once that was finished, I enrolled at Waterloo as a full-time math undergrad and was able to take advanced classes (for the top 5 or 10% of their students) and do well.
Good luck! Math is awesome!
There are lots of "mathematical recreations" and "math puzzles" that are fun to try solving, in the same way that it can be fun solving other puzzles. And sometimes you may see a variation on that puzzle that's fun (and truly new). Not all of them are truly critical from the point of view of furthering the advancement of mathematics, but they help develop the mind, and if your purpose is to have fun, start now!
For example, I learned about the ``four fours'' problem as a kid (using exactly 4 fours, create legal mathematical expressions to compute 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.). Recently I created a definitive list of answers for the four fours problem. I also played with various really weird bases. Will these change the universe? No. But in the process I learned more than I knew before, and I enjoyed the process.
If nothing else, if you enjoy the process, you're more likely to continue doing it.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
Anyway, if you're serious about learning mathematics but scared of the cost, go to your nearest University and just sit in on the class. Listen to the lecture, ask questions, take notes, do homeworks, take tests, just don't pay. I teach mathematics at the college level... if a students showed up in my classroom who seriously wanted to learn, but didn't want to pay tuition, I would be more than supportive of his/her presence in my class. A number of my colleagues feel the same way -- learning should transcend economic boundaries. (On the other hand, though, some of my peers in our University's Physics department like the fact that tuition weeds out the middle-aged crackpots with their pseudo-scientific TOEs). For math books freely downloadable online, dig around at http://www.math.umn.edu/~garrett
There is a book called Mathmatics From the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg. This book is $50 American. It starts with the concept of numbers in different cultures all the way through calculus including Diff eqs, harmonics, probability, matrices, integration, power series, methods of approximation, trig, analytic geometry ... This is a fantastic book. If you have a good foundation but were not able to tie it all together, this is the book for you. Each chapter gives you enough examples to tie the theories together but not enough to teach the concepts without a foundation. Get the book if you are intersted in math.
http://www.nln.ac.uk/materials.asp
'interactive online learning materials' created in the UK for further education courses.
These materials are being created using central government funding, and are being added to regularly
Anyway, I can't speak for someone who tackled Calculus, but I picked up a book called "Forgotten Algebra", which starts off really light, and ends up somewhere between where my grade 11 and 12 years left off. I take a commuter train to work and back, which gives me an hour and a half of math joy, and I manage to plug in a couple hours on the weekend.
So far, it's been a very rewarding break from all those programming books I've been cramming into my head. I plan on taking on some trig next.
I'm a self taught geek, and my strongest means of learning has always been books. I thought math might be an exception, and it may be at a higher level, but so far it's worked out excellently for myself. I can't wait to go in to work tomorrow and do more.
There is a lot of good educational material on the web. Take Project Links for example.
...These aren't the droids you're looking for....Move along....
I found when I teac someoen else anything I learn it better than the person I am teaching. I learn at least three programming languages. This way I did it in all my math courses when I sit down and try to explain something to someone it sticks better in my mind. Also find someone who is willing to teach you what you cannot understand on your own.
Have fun
How much did your computer cost? How much did you spend on the TV, DVD, tunner, speakers, game console... add that up see what pricey is.
Entertainment vs. Enlightenment
Granted some basic needs are pricey... if you trully do enjoy math again why not save up some of the money you would save on entertainment and spend that on a class... you enjoy yourself, learn, and inspire all at the same time. That trully is priceless.
For linear algebra, calculus, etc. It's the only way to go. Every problem has integer eigenvalues, the proofs are hard but doable, and it is just about as rigorous as you can get.
It's more important than the bible.
----------
I am an expert in electricity. My father held the chair of applied electricity at the state prision.
Mathematics for the Nonmathematician by Morris Kline (ISBN 0-486-24823-2, QA37.2K6 1985).
Stealing your daughters' textbooks is almost what you want to do. Sit down with (one of) them and ask them what they're doing. Ask them to teach you. It'll be a wonderful learning experience for both you and your daughter(s).
Precisely. There's a taxonomy of understanding called Bloom's Taxonomy:
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
It progresses from Knowledge to Evaluation. Most students really only learn to the knowledge level in class. They memorize for an exam, and that's about it. But anyone who really knows what they are doing has achieved all of these levels of abstraction of understanding.
By working with your daughters and having them teach you, they'll progress to comprehension, they'll have to. You can continue to work with them, and challenge them to show you how things are done - advancing both of your understanding.
And you can do this at almost any age. I challenge my son to explain how he makes certain things out of Legos. He's 4. And he's good at it. And every time he explains how he build a bridge or a car or something, he gets better at it. Sometimes he did something clever, but didn't realize why it was clever until the explanation happens.
It's a good trick in a knowledge workplace as well. Have employees or teams explain what they are doing, how they solved a problem, or addressed a challenge to the larger community. Not only will it build the community and help everyone understand the whole widget, but the presenters will learn a great deal more about what they did and why though the presentation.
After reading through the comments, I am seeing a lot of emphasis being put on stuff like calculus (or mulitvariate calculus.. or vector caculus =) ). If you are just looking to broaden your horizons a bit, I would probably steer clear of the applied maths and give pure math a look, especially if you've never been exposed to it. Most good introductory books will be self-contained enough that you don't need any other background, and the material that they cover will be miles removed from what you covered in other highschool or college courses.
I'd really recommend you check out some graph theory. It's pretty, it's pretty easy to grasp, it's got some suprising applications, and it's quite different from the usual calculus-type fare. You'll also get a nice introduction to techniques for proving things, which can be fun. Other interesting choices might be number theory, analysis, combinatorics... the list goes on. Give it a try!
I paid my $375 and went back to university. It was a lot of work, a lot more fun and I discovered discrete mathematics for the first time in my life. Discrete mathematics made sense in a way that other maths didn't and I abandoned my studies (which I was only doing for fun and vanity anyway) to see where the discrete maths led. It is still leading and it is even more interesting now.
Currently I am playing with base 7 and base 60 which is something that you won't learn at university, LOL. (If anyone has any ideas on how to represent base 60 in a java applet calculator using a standard US English keyboard then I would love to hear your ideas, contact me at gilroy@ozemail.com.au).
Anyway, do maths for fun and you will have fun. Do maths for work and it will be the pain that it was when you were at school. I mean maths has always been easy for me but this is the first time in my life that I have enjoyed it.
I can reccomend a "pop science" book that's
very good at re-awakening interest in pure
maths (and cryptography).
Its called "In Code", its a true story
of an Irish girl (Sara
oops, I think I posted an incomplete text by mistake
I can reccomend a "pop science" book that's very good at re-awakening interest in pure maths (and cryptography).
Its called "In Code", its a true story of an Irish girl (Sara Flannery) who won a prize at a science fair, and then got hit with a mountain of publicity. She got paid to write a book, and with her father included an execelent primer in the maths of modern crypto (prime numbers and all that).
It had my head spinning for about 2 weeks ;)
In Code
A Mathematical Journey
ISBN 1 86197 271 7
by Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery
hope this helps
just a month ago i was pondering over the same question..
:) Another important thing that i have learnt ..
and finally realized that there is/was no short cut!
There are so many new things on the block, since i left
university a decade ago, that honestly i felt i was
probably mathematically handicapped! But just after
a month i am beginning to get comfortable.
There are some lessons i have learnt on the way. The first
is to to go slow: take a problem at a time and try to solve it by the earlier
learnt methods. Then run a simple query on internet
for the scope of your problem.. you will find many
phd thesis, technical reports, and often tutorials
on the topic. From the results pick out 5 or 6 most
frequently applied NEW methods and then start getting
deeper into them. I generally start with looking
for a comparison study on the selected methods which
in my opinion is very useful. This initial research tells me
of what the hell has happened in last
ten years
is that most new methods are relatively more "user-friendly"
than the ones we had in earlier times. The visualization
and application of the new(er) methods is better.
Lastly, do not waste time on mathematical equations until you know
exactly the concept that goes behind them. I mean
the concept behind Wavelet Transforms
is more elegant and beautiful than the mathematical
mumbo-jumbo that explain it with equations!
my two cents.
Voltaire: God is dead.
God: Voltaire is dead!
A mathematician, a physicist, an engineer went again to the races and laid their money down. Commiserating in the bar after the race, the engineer says, "I don't understand why I lost all my money. I measured all the horses and calculated their strength and mechanical advantage and figured out how fast they could run..."
..."
.haeger
The physicist interrupted him: "...but you didn't take individual variations into account. I did a statistical analysis of their previous performances and bet on the horses with the highest probability of winning..."
"...so if you're so hot why are you broke?" asked the engineer. But before the argument can grow, the mathematician takes out his pipe and they get a glimpse of his well-fattened wallet. Obviously here was a man who knows something about horses. They both demanded to know his secret.
"Well," he says, "first I assumed all the horses were identical and spherical..."
An chemist, a physicist, and a mathematician are stranded on an island when a can of food rools ashore. The chemist and the physicist comes up with many ingenious ways to open the can. Then suddenly the mathematician gets a bright idea: "Assume we have a can opener
A mathematician is asked to design a table. He first designs a table with no legs. Then he designs a table with infinitely many legs. He spend the rest of his life generalizing the results for the table with N legs (where N is not necessarily a natural number).
A Mathematician (M) and an Engineer (E) attend a lecture by a Physicist. The topic concerns Kulza-Klein theories involving physical processes that occur in spaces with dimensions of 9, 12 and even higher. The M is sitting, clearly enjoying the lecture, while the E is frowning and looking generally confused and puzzled. By the end the E has a terrible headache. At the end, the M comments about the wonderful lecture.
E: "How do you understand this stuff?"
M: "I just visualize the process"
E: "How can you POSSIBLY visualize something that occurs in 9-dimensional space?"
M: "Easy, first visualize it in N-dimensional space, then let N go to 9"
A mathematician, an engineer, and a chemist were walking down the road when they saw a pile of cans of beer. Unfortunately, they were the old-fashioned cans that do not have the tab at the top. One of them proposed that they split up and find can openers. The chemist went to his lab and concocted a magical chemical that dissolves the can top in an instant and evaporates the next instant so that the beer inside is not affected. The engineer went to his workshop and created a new HyperOpener that can open 25 cans per second.
They went back to the pile with their inventions and found the mathematician finishing the last can of beer. "How did you manage that?" they asked in astonishment. The mathematician answered, "Oh, well, I assumed they were open and went from there."
Mathematician U. was a great friend of his five-year old grandson. They discused everything including math and U. was very proud of the boys math talents. The child went to kindergarden; In two weeks the he ask U.to help with the difficult math problem: "There are four airplanes flying, then two more airplanes join them. How many airplanes are flying now? U. was very disappointed by the simplicity of the problem. "What confuses you?" he asked. The child says: " I know, of course, that 4 + 2 =6, but I cannot figure out what the airplanes have do with this!"
These days, even the most pure and abstract mathematics is in danger to be applied.
"The number you have dialed is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again."
The shortest math joke: let epsilon be 0
A Neanderthal child rode to school with a boy from Hamilton. When his mother found out she said, "What did I tell you? If you commute with a Hamiltonian you'll never evolve!"
How many topologists does it take to screw in a lightbulb??
Just one. But what will you do with the doughnut?
Q: What's the contour integral around Western Europe?
A: Zero, because all the Poles are in Eastern Europe!
Addendum: Actually, there ARE some Poles in Western Europe, but they are removable!
Noah's Ark lands after The Flood and Noah releases all the animals, saying, "Go forth and multiply." Several months pass and Noah decides to check up on the animals. All are doing fine except a pair of snakes. "What's the problem?" asks Noah. "Cut down some trees and let us live there," say the snakes. Noah follows their advice. Several more weeks pass and Noah checks up on the snakes again. He sees lots of little snakes; everybody is happy. Noah says, "So tell me how the trees helped." "Certainly," reply the snakes. "We're adders, and we need logs to multiply."
Q: What's a polar bear?
A: A rectangular bear after a coordinate transform.
I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
The Pleasures of Counting -- T. W. Korner (CUP) is great if you want a light read.
If want to learn more (but enjoy the read less) try Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering -- Kenneth Franklin Riley, et al (also CUP.) It is known as Riley-Hobson-Bence and is very good.
It's almost too bad that I saw this so late. Given how much the math books of John Allen Paulos have entertained me. I really could have done some good karma whoring.
Many of them are about the bastardization of statistics, others not. My favorite is Mathmatics and Humor, short, interesting. Most are similar in that respect and pretty much all of them are written for the layman who doesn't have time for homework. All the ones I have were easy, quick, reads. And some of them I even paid full price for (normally I just pick up interesting looking stuff from half price books).
Most things have a qualitative and a quantitative aspect, the difference between how and how much. Math really isn't any different.
In that way, math with history might intersect with the history of Pi, and the solution of Fermat's Last Theorem (Unlocking the Secret of an Acient Mathmatical Problem, by Amir D. Aczel), both of which have been turned into interesting books.
But why math? Physics can certainly have a similar bent. And there are quite a few books that seek to explain the mysteries of quantum mechanics, and relativity in simpler, less rigorous, and less tedious, terms. Many of them aren't even written by kooks! To say nothing of those books that cronicle some of the more interesting discoveries that are crying to be made into a Nova special if not an actual movie. The book about the COBE experiment, I think it was called First Light, comes to mind. The personal drama is engaging enough to keep someone interested even if one finds the science, impenetrable, which I would think unlikly.
For whatever reason I dislike the vast majority of fiction, so I browse at Half Price Books and buy $30 or so of math and science books.
But it's all about what one hopes to gain. I don't hope to build a supercollider in my back yard, even if I could afford it and the DOE would sign off on it (and they might!). I seek more illumination about the world, and larger universe I get to live in, that, I can get from a book.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
If the symptoms persist after 48 hours, go and see your doctor.
Your analogy is flawed. What the university is supplying, what students find so valuable, is a guarantee to potential employers that you have a certain skill set. Sure, you could go to each and every class, learn all the same material as everyone else, but if all an interviewer had was your word that you know all that, you wouldn't likely get the job, or perhaps not be paid as much.
To bring this back to your analogy, a pirated CD is usually an exact copy of the original. For a pirate, there's little chance that it's faulty and little to lose if it is. However, if an employer is going to pay you a hefty salary for things you only claim to know, he's at tremendous risk of loss if you're incompetent. Thus, the employer pays more to individuals who have a degree to back up their resume, and this extra bonus is incentive for students to pay the university.
It's more like a large company deploying software across a thousand machines. They need to know it's going to work, so they need a support relationship with the manufacturer. Here, they're selling what the university is selling: a guarantee of performance, rather than just pure IP.
I don't know if this is avaialable in the States, but in the UK we have the Open University. This is a government funded distance learning initiative which goes back to the 70's. It is very __good__, no, bloody excellent, actually. It may well be available in the States, it seems to be available in virtually every other country of the world. Try http://www.open.ac.uk. The do every kind of math. I am currently doing a Computing and Math degree, on a 2nd level course, having just finished some group theory (excellent), moving into Kleinian Geometry (daunting!). This is intro, so they ain't messing about. However, you can get courses at every level; from simpleton to master.
Cheers,
Doug
Try out the BBC online lerning site for Maths revision, its good fun, well presented and reasonably complete:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/asguru/maths/
Best of luck!
It is the New Kind of Math - why bother about the old one?
Look at www.gmat.org, you can download a sample GMAT test which includes a tutorial to get you up to speed on the GMAT required maths (Windows only, sorry). It's a good start - and free...
Insert
She went back to evening school, got a Masters degree all while taking care of 3 children (with the help of my dad of course).
A lot of work? Yeah.
A good excuse? Bollocks.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Sorry, I forgot my nickname and password. I am in exactly the same situation - I am 39 and I discovered a while ago that I was quite good at math and physics. (I live in England, but used to live in San Francisco). I did some math on my own, did a calculus course at Berkeley in the evenings (Hi Mr. Durban!) and fell in love with it.
Now I am starting a physics BSc in fall. I thought about maths, but I thought 1 math graduate (my wife) in the family is enough.
I will try to go into academia as well. I am getting tired of the "free market".
if you wanna talk, I am always up to talk about math for late bloomers:) polar_beauty@yahoo.com
-Frank
To get a good intuition, it is necessary to develop your own math images in your head and to test them against other people and to see how they see/visualize the same theorem. In time, this will vastly expand your toolbelt of techniques and your intuition. If you read one book, you will certainly miss out on conversations with other math enthusiast and will miss the additional input. A small example: I was once in a class where everyone was challenged to present a proof of pythagoras theorem of "a^2+b^2=c^2". I think I saw 7 or 8 different proofs, while I came up with "only" 2 myself.
Once you do have a solid math basis, then working and studying math in solo fashion is possible, although my own experience with complex function theory has taught me that you will learn more then twice as much from studying with other students then going solo.
That said, I can advise the following books for introduction:
- Vector calculus by Marsden en Tromba
- Algebra by Hungerford
- Elementary Topology by Munkres
- Groups and symmetry by M. Armstrong
Good luckI intend to live forever, so far so good.
Firstly sorry I'm posting here, but I should like the original requestor to read this...
Mathematics, at least pure mathematics, is more of a mindset that a knowledge set. It is incredibly hard to learn the mathematical way of thinking from books alone, that said once this mindset is acquired the books are the only thing you'll need.
My advice would be to find yourself a mentor who's willing to assist you in acquiring this mindset, you'll probably be succesful asking around the various maths newsgroups.
You need to be able to interact in real time with this person occasionally, but there is no reason not to do this over IM or IRC.
As for what to learn / which books to read Calculus by Micheal Spivak is an excellent book, it brings in rigour gently and covers all of the main points of analysis. Covering its contents alone would set you up for a college / uni course, though you might also what to get a basic grip of [say] group theory and a very basic idea of sets [doesn't have to be above the venn diagram level]
One word of warning do not let a physicist, on engineer or anyone else who 'thinks' they know maths teach you maths, find a mathematician
Another one is
19
----
95
Cancelling out the nines works too.
This sig is a figment of your imagination.
My interest is actually in advanced physics, but that requires a pretty serious math background. I went to a local university bookstore and bought up some textbooks on calculus. I also bought books at my local bookstore on calculus, and topology.
I study on my own. I use the internet as a resource, as there are quite a few sites that have tutorials on math.
I tend to learn best on my own, if I have a source of asking questions. Again, the internet comes in handy there. Google Groups sci.math is also a good source for asking questions.
If I feel I have what it takes, my goal is to go back and get a graduate degree in Physics, but it's hard to do when you have a full-time job and other responsibilities. I'll get as far as I can on my own first, though.
No need to spend a lot on courses or fancy books. Just get the Harper-Collins "Dictionary of Mathematics" for about 10 bucks or so, virtually the entire corpus of mathematics laid out in very readable and digestible articles. It's equivalent a Master's Degree in Math, IMHO. If you're really interested in math, this should get you going. Also, find a guru who can mentor and answer questions.
Morris Kline has some really good mathbooks for people who don't know math that well. Mathematics and the Natural World was a great read for me back when I was in high school, and it is still interesting now that I have 3 semesters of calculus and some linear algebra and differential equations under my belt.
He also has a book called Mathematics for the Non-Mathematician which I have not read, but based on the quality of his other books would probably be well written. He is one of those people that understands mathematics so well that he can explain it clearly to someone who doesn't know that much about it.
If you are looking for formal math training for your job, this wouldn't be the resource for you. If what you are interested in is the beauty and fun of math and the way it describes the world around us, this is a great resource. You may find it is actually worth learning about math for its own sake.
would you want to learn math again? if you don't need it for your job, what difference does it make? higher math is not that important unless you're an engineer or a math teacher. i don't see how anyone would have an "interest" in math as a "hobby".
please me, have no regrets.
Try the two-book series by Louis Lyons called 'All you wanted to know about Mathematics (but were afraid to ask)'.
It's a book geared towards science students, but to me at least, it's best damned Math book I've ever read. Why? Because it bridges the gap between disciplines. Mathematicians are often very theoretical-minded people. They have a hard time understanding that some people do not relate very well to theory, especially when all they need to know is how to apply that obscure theorem to get a practical result.
Lyons' book puts everything into context. His writing style is pretty laid back and comfortable (especially considering that this is a book about...well. Math.)
The two volumes together should give you a good, solid base to use math. Having that, I suggest following the other posters' advice and buying more specialized, more in-depth books that really get into the whys and hows. But I'm betting this kind of book will really help to get you started.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
"Zero" will get you from basic math concepts up to understanding the math of black holes in short order and it's a small short paperback written by some math genius in laymans terms. I got my wife to read it after I was through and she actually said she thought it was good.
There are a couple of other good one like that.
"How Brains Work" easy reading
"e: The Story of a Number" gets tricky but teach you the math
"Pi: The Story of a Number" same as last one but I'm not sure if that's the right title
"Where Math Comes From" shows that our math is not a universal truth and can really tell us nothing beyond what is in our brains already
For anyone interested in brushing up on calculus, I highly recommend Howard Swann's cartoon opus,
t ml
"Professor E. McSquared's Calculus Primer"
It is the best introduction to Calculus I've ever come across, and while many mathematicians know of the book and recommend it, it is rarely seen in bookstores.
Unlike most calculus books which assume you already know calculus, Prof. E. McSquared assumes that you will have difficulty with calculus and patiently explains some of the difficult initial concepts.
The best place to get it is from Dr. Howard Swann himself (who is at San Jose State University), via
http://www.mathcs.sjsu.edu/faculty/swann/mcsqrd.h
-a.e.mossberg
I'm taking a series of Undergrad Math courses through the Friday Center for continuing ed at UNC. These are self study courses, but you have full access to a professor via email or phone if you need real help. They are quite affordable for in-state, and not too unreasonable out of state. Plus if you are in a technical position, and feeling creative you can probably get your company to pay for them if you make the argument that these are preparation to go for a masters in CS or some subject related to your job. Check out http://www.unc.edu and follow the links to the Friday Center.
Surely the textbook wasn't his only problem....
Thaths
Don't give my roomate too bad a time. He was basically doing HS over again at community college after royally screwing up when he was younger. You gotta admire someone who realizes they made a mistake and actually goes out and tries to put things right. I know a lot of people who are content to just take easiest path down. This guy on the other hand was trying and succeeding at pulling himself out of the hole he was in. He was also working his butt off with two jobs and school at the same time.
finally, after waiting all this time... We have it!
YESS!!!! WE HAVE YAKISOYBA!!!!
When looking for books look at the used ones first. If the used version of the book you are looking for doesn't look "used" they were probably droll bullshit, find something that has a lot of copies that look like they went through hell and back.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
It depends on what he/she did for high school math. The person asking the question does not specify his/her mathematical background. High school math for some people is "algebra" and Euclidean geometry and possibly statistics. High school math for others is linear algebra, calculus, some abstract algebra, and more serious statistics.
Schools vary widely in terms of cirriculum and standards in some places.
yet you don't actually go to UCSD? and you know the ENTIRE math dept. at UCSD drops acid. WOW, you're power is amazing.
As with any place, there are some good profs, and some bad, this is true EVERYWHERE. That's why you ask other students which profs are good and which are bad, except sometimes they just rate profs as bad just because they failed. I remember one prof. I had everyone said he was horrible and was scared of taking is class. Turned out to be one of the best profs. I've had, he just demanded a lot so that you learn a lot.
Besides, Community Colleges don't have a lot lot of choice past classes in the first two years in a degree course. For math, these means you can take Calculus, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra. But what about Real Analysis, Partial Differential Equations, Number Theory, and Modern Algebra?
I hear the accent blamed far too often. It's a lame excuse. I've been in the same lectures with the profs that have "incomprehensible" accents and done perfectly fine and understood every word spoken after a week. He may be a bad teacher, but PLEASE don't blame the accent. They're trying hard to speak a 2nd language, which a lot of those who complain don't do at all, so they have no understanding.
i left school at 15, went to technical college and studied various things including math and enjoyed it. But then i left to get a job...
Now I am a sysadmin and doing well, but i find myself getting bored... I want to go back and study math, learn programming properly etc etc.
i have some math textbooks from when i studying, should pull them out and relearn algebra etc
---- Put Sig here:
You learned Calculus in a few days?
Wow.
You are smart.
Probably the smartest person who ever lived.
Except that you're a clueless troll.
Learn some manners, Einstein
To get good at math you need to do it yourself, that is, solve problems. Its only when you face the problems yourself that you really get an appreciation for it. My advice is to skip the classes and go to a good book and systematically go through it doing all the problems. I would recommend Kolmogorov and Fomin, Introductory Real Analysis. Kolmogorov is arguably the best mathematician of the 20th century and his book is a masterpiece. Amazingly, you can get this gem for only $10 in paperback. Spend as long as necessary to go through it thoroughly doing all the problems. You MUST do all the problems. Nothing less. Take a year or however long it takes you to do this. You won't be sorry. Another one (not an alternative but a second book to look at) is Halmos, Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces. Good luck.