Just dusted off my old maths books
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
Chris Maunder wrote:
Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
To me that happened when I started at the university. I got slapped straight in the face with a frying pan. That was my punishment for having gone through my school years without needing put in any effort at all.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
Forty years after high school, I am now asked to teach high school geometry to a kid. Starting this week. No dusty old books, but fresh PDF books available in the public domain.
-
Chris Maunder wrote:
Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
To me that happened when I started at the university. I got slapped straight in the face with a frying pan. That was my punishment for having gone through my school years without needing put in any effort at all.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
Same here, up to the last year of high school I used to get 90...95% of the maximum number of points without ever having to study or open a book, life was really easy. Higher education to get an engineering degree turned out to be a big surprise! In the end I did manage to acquire the degree within the foreseen time without re-exams etc... but it took quite a bit of effort which I was not used to.
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
-
I'm teaching a friend's high-school age kid software engineering. This week we're going to study sorting: bubble, binary insertion, quick and merge. Bubble is trivial, but I'm dreading the others. What's worse, he's very bright and thinks I know what I'm talking about. :sigh: /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
-
I'm teaching a friend's high-school age kid software engineering. This week we're going to study sorting: bubble, binary insertion, quick and merge. Bubble is trivial, but I'm dreading the others. What's worse, he's very bright and thinks I know what I'm talking about. :sigh: /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
Playing cards are useful tool. Shuffle them, deal them out and then demonstrate one of the algorithms to physically sort. Get student to have a go. Then show the algorithm's pseudocode and show how it links to the physical process of sorting the cards. Allow only one card to be moved at a time or you will end up combining statements into one, you'll need to designate a space on the table as register/memory location. If you want to demonstrate why a computer needs these algorithms, whereas a human does not, turn the cards face down and allow only two card faces to be seen at any one time while applying the algorithm. Practice beforehand :-)
-
How long have you held onto your wife?
Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.Have you told your wife that you are comparing her to a bunch of old books?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
-
Have you told your wife that you are comparing her to a bunch of old books?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
Well, it's better'n a bunch of old bags, innit?
Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. -
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
I needed a FFT implementation for an AI audio project a few years ago. Thinking I could do it from the math got me into my old books. Clapping the first book closed, I sneezed away the dust, and was cured in a hot minute. CP articles and 3rd party libs are not for the lazy, they're for the pragmatic.
Cheers, Mike Fidler "I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright "I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter." Steven Wright yet again.
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
-
Just curious, why would you hold onto those books for so long?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
ZurdoDev wrote:
Just curious, why would you hold onto those books for so long?
Have you taken a look to the new books? I did (helping out the son of a friend). And there are very, very few that are better than mine back then.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
-
ZurdoDev wrote:
Just curious, why would you hold onto those books for so long?
Have you taken a look to the new books? I did (helping out the son of a friend). And there are very, very few that are better than mine back then.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
Nelek wrote:
Have you taken a look to the new books?
No.
Nelek wrote:
very few that are better than mine back then.
But are you ever going to read your old text books?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
I assume I still have mine on a shelf somewhere. For me, it is the Anatomy and Physiology books and history books. I find the aches and pains drive me to reinvestigate the names of the muscles that hurt or the battles referenced by politicians in their rambling speeches. When I do pull out a math book, it is driven by the need to calculate the amount of seed needed to seed a lawn or the geometry to calculate the height of a tree.
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
I would be in the same place, but had a girlfriend and then my kids who needed help with Calculus, so it's not so dusty. My bugaboo is Quantum Mechanics and Gravitation. I just got a book on Quantum Computing to help me get back into it.
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
I've had similar experiences with calculus and digital control theory. I stumbled onto a library book that is a good alternative to my college books Barron's E-Z Calculus. It's based on a somewhat juvenile story, but it does the job. Having plenty of college calculus in my distant past, this was a great refresher, and I'm sure I learned things I never really understood the first time around. It's an enjoyable approach to getting back up to speed. I've since downloaded a digital version of the book which is a great goto when riding on a plan (when we get to do that again). Good luck.
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
I recommend going back until you get to the easier stuff. Remember that "Algebra" was created to simplify calculus (By standardizing many rules/approaches/etc). By the time I finished Calc 4... My Algebra was pretty IMPRESSIVE. I minored in math, so I kept going. (My last math class: "Concentric Geometries in Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Spaces" is WELL beyond me today, and was a bit of struggle). Also, bear in mind that we TEACH Calculus at roughly the same speed as it was DEVELOPED. Kinda insane, but not really when you think about it. University was a Floating IQ Test. Since in the USA, businesses were NOT ALLOWED to test IQs to do their hiring. They used Universities as a proxy. In the end, what you learned was NOT as important as what you chose and how you did when you applied yourself. Interviewers then look for nuances, like how you handle failure, etc. To avoid getting the super-geeky cry babies that don't play well with others (while other companies, like TI, would lap some of those up for fun, LOL).
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
"The slope of a curve" haunts me to this day. My book: Forgotten Calculus. I now just watch my dog lean into curves while we're driving.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it. ― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
-
For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, [Calculus by Michael Spivak](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/328645.Calculus) (the classic!) and, well... I don't feel as smart as I used to. I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it. No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down. Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers Chris Maunder
-
I'm teaching a friend's high-school age kid software engineering. This week we're going to study sorting: bubble, binary insertion, quick and merge. Bubble is trivial, but I'm dreading the others. What's worse, he's very bright and thinks I know what I'm talking about. :sigh: /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
You're so screwed :D
cheers Chris Maunder
-
Just curious, why would you hold onto those books for so long?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
Those books are like old, old friends. I had some of the best and worst times with those books.
cheers Chris Maunder
