Just dusted off my old maths books
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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 got rid of my math books decades ago (except for the 16th edition CRC). And wouldn't you know it, I got involved in embedded devices that do a fair amount of audio processing. The DSP coding peaked my interest so I picked up a few books on it (really like the Richard Lyons book!). Was fun to learn new stuff but boy I sure wish I remembered all the math I took in college.
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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
Nope - Bessel functions are still as meaningless to me now as then, as is the wave-function of a quantum particle constrained to the surface of a sphere (one of the questions in the exam for my second year quantum mechanics course - I was mentally scarred by that...).
Java, Basic, who cares - it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippy cr*p
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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 recently dug out my Calculus and Linear Algebra books out for my 16 year old who is just starting Calculus this semester with hopes of doing well enough to take Linear Algebra in a year. I looked over the books before I gave them to him and I realize that other than moral support I will be of no help to him in any of his future math. The difference with my experience is an additional 19 years of math memory loss. Glad to have a son who is academically much smarter than the old man, we just need to work on the common sense part of it all.
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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.
Yes. I have had the need a couple of times, due to things I was working on. I have not and won't re-read the whole book, for sure I will probably never touch again some chapters. But it doesn't mean that the whole book is not worth to keep.
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.
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Yes. I have had the need a couple of times, due to things I was working on. I have not and won't re-read the whole book, for sure I will probably never touch again some chapters. But it doesn't mean that the whole book is not worth to keep.
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:
the whole book is not worth to keep.
To me it is. Just google it. You can find anything now. We tend to store too much stuff.
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.
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Nelek wrote:
the whole book is not worth to keep.
To me it is. Just google it. You can find anything now. We tend to store too much stuff.
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.
I had edited my message, but since you were that fast answering... I post it here:
Quote:
Well, actually the most important things are my notes included inside to explain how to look at some things and what I needed to understand it back then. Those are priceless for me ;)
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.
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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
I know exactly what that means... :doh: :sigh: That's why I wrote down my thoughts when I was understanding things, because I knew that my memory won't keep it for the future. But thanks to my notes I am able to get through most of the stuff way easier than it would have been without them.
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.
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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
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I know exactly what that means... :doh: :sigh: That's why I wrote down my thoughts when I was understanding things, because I knew that my memory won't keep it for the future. But thanks to my notes I am able to get through most of the stuff way easier than it would have been without them.
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.
You're obviously smarter than I am.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
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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
Oh, yes, I have done that. i was surprised just how much I had forgotten and just how long it is taking to get partly "back into" the Maths....however I am now 72, but that should not be a real problem. So I am very rusty in Maths and now need to keep reading for the next months to refresh. This will be necessary, since I want to read about AI/ML.
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You're obviously smarter than I am.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
Easier than without them doesn't necessarily means easier than you ;)
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.
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Just get your friend's kid some boots and send him this tutorial: Quick-sort with Hungarian (Küküllőmenti legényes) folk dance - YouTube[^]
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You're so screwed :D
cheers Chris Maunder
Understatement! :-D /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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So, cheat and read up on it. :) Sorting Algorithms - GeeksforGeeks[^]
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
Yep. :) /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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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
One man's opinion: The entire problem with collegiate mathematics is contained in this one word... - Trigonometry. We don't do enough of it. I remember my "Pre-Calculus" classs. Six weeks of Algebra followed by five weeks of Trigonometry. And then came calculus. Pig Snot; Totally. College Algebra should take about fifteen weeks College Trigonometry should take about the same amount of time. If the typical science curriculum did that, then Calculus would be fun, fascinating, loved, and cherished for life. But I'm also a realist. That will never happen; not on this planet.
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One man's opinion: The entire problem with collegiate mathematics is contained in this one word... - Trigonometry. We don't do enough of it. I remember my "Pre-Calculus" classs. Six weeks of Algebra followed by five weeks of Trigonometry. And then came calculus. Pig Snot; Totally. College Algebra should take about fifteen weeks College Trigonometry should take about the same amount of time. If the typical science curriculum did that, then Calculus would be fun, fascinating, loved, and cherished for life. But I'm also a realist. That will never happen; not on this planet.
Interpreting Statistics should be a mandatory course for everyone. It's disturbing how we are so easily swayed through the presentation of stats without context, and how a little understanding would go such a long way towards proper understanding.
cheers Chris Maunder