Maths recommendation.

parths

5'ed and seconded. I have watched the OCW videos for Linear Algebra by Gilbert Strang. His explanations are excellent!

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

phannon86

I sure as hell don't need my A-level maths at the moment, but for my degree it certainly was useful. One small example where it came in handy, algorithms...

He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

riced

Many years ago I needed to get Mathematics O level to get into university. I worked my way through 'Teach Yourself Algebra' and did every problem in it. (Teach Yourself... is (was?) a well known series in UK). Somewhere along the line it clicked what was going on - don't know why or how it just did. The lesson I drew from this was that I had to do mathematics to get it. Just reading books or attending classes was not enough. But I guess that's pretty much the same in all subjects - to get programming you need to program, not just read programming books. :)

Regards David R --------------------------------------------------------------- "Every program eventually becomes rococo, and then rubble." - Alan Perlis The only valid measurement of code quality: WTFs/minute.

Dave Parker

When I took computer science at uni I don't remember there being any maths in it whatsoever really, apart from in a module on artificial intelligence (and then I think it was mostly a case of memorizing huge formulas filled with greek symbols, rather than actually doing anything with them).

Mustafa Ismail Mustafa

You're gonna love these then:

and my favorite two (other than MIT)

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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa

Gilbert Strang is definitely one of the better lecturers that I have ever seen. He can really explain things. If I ever become a lecturer after getting my (continuously postponed) PhD, I will base my methods on his. I contrast him with Andrew Ng of Stanford. A guy that knows so much about Machine Learning, but I cannot consider him as a good lecturer.

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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa

Holy deep-fried-crap-onna-stick man! You're alive! How are you!? How have you been? What have you been up to?!

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How is it?

OK, here's the funny part. It started off as a gag a few weeks back. I still haven't got it yet! I'm waiting for a friend of mine to come back from the UK armed with it and with CIV V.

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Alexander DiMauro

parths wrote:

I have watched the OCW videos for Linear Algebra by Gilbert Strang. His explanations are excellent!

I remember using his book in my Linear Algebra class back when I was getting my MS.

funazonki

Try Polya's Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Volume 1: Induction and Analogy in Mathematics - plus something on formal languages and proofs - it amazes me how few people really understand mathematical induction and proofs. Once you understand that stuff, the notation is just another programming language.

randomusic

If you need a break from all the serious math, then please take a look at my site with some fun recreational math problems[^], some difficult some easier. Magnus

Rick Shaub

Here's a good place to start when trying to figure out what a particular symbol means: Table of mathematical symbols[^]

PhilPalmer

OK, here goes. Cat, pigeons - pigeons, cat. AI is mostly (entirely?) about Bayesian inference, predicate logic and list processing. Bayesian inference is a part of probability theory, the key mathematics is sometimes called combinatorics and features letters with an exclamation mark after them and that greek letter that looks like an M lying on its side. You can very likely find something to suit you about probability in the public library, which ought to be enough to get you started. For predicate logic I recommend you try Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. Don't expect to finish it. It is a landmark classic, so if the staff at your public library don't have it or can't get it, mock them. Publicly and mercilessly. Again, don't expect to finish it. List processing is a CS topic, so they will teach you that at uni. But an important simple application is the differentiation of polynomials, so it might help to do enough calculus to know what that means. Maybe the public library has something, though this is less likely than for probability. As for Games theory, it depends what you mean. Mathematical game theory comes from number theory which comes from predicate logic. Godel, Escher, Bach would do more of that than you would need to know. You should also try The Compleat Strategyst by John Davis Williams which is a very easy introduction on how to turn strategy into numbers. There were also a series of books some years ago called Game Programming Gems that you might be able to track down. The contributions in them were at all sorts of mathematical level but should give you an idea of what is relevant.

Zeke Shadfurman

I like http://www.khanacademy.org/ The most commonsense explanations I've ever seen, makes things sooo simple.