depends on the level or the depth
Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
191–200 of 215 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#192>My current proficiency level is pre-high school mathematics as I didn't pay much attention in high school, learning effectively nothing. Advice from someone who was in the same position: Take a class. Multiple classes. Go sign up for a Mathematics AS at your nearest community college right now. You will never know enough of what you don't know to learn this stuff on your own. A lot of it is just doing the painful re…
As someone that has loosely tried to learn Mathematics over the past decade, I second this.
Self-learning mathematics is really difficult, especially when you don't really know where you stand any more in terms of pre-requisite education.
It's easy to say you're going to dedicate x of hours of time to study Mathematics, but it's easy to drop off, ditch it in favour of the next thing to learn, and essentially forget what you tried to learn. Taking a class will at least physically allocate that time to maths.
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#193>My current proficiency level is pre-high school mathematics as I didn't pay much attention in high school, learning effectively nothing. Advice from someone who was in the same position: Take a class. Multiple classes. Go sign up for a Mathematics AS at your nearest community college right now. You will never know enough of what you don't know to learn this stuff on your own. A lot of it is just doing the painful re…
Can I ask where you are now in life? Im a high school drop out as well and have found it very tough to get back into things, crippling anxiety only driven further by lack of participation :/
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for saying this. I've been learning math from Khan Academy for the last 200 days. I've reached calculus and I feel more and more the need for examples of how to apply the math that I'm learning to truly understand what it's useful for. I was actually thinking of learning how to build video games (or at least parts of it) to properly understand linear algebra. Someone else also suggested physics for calculus…
> I've been learning math from Khan Academy for the last 200 days. I've reached calculus and I feel more and more the need for examples of how to apply the math that I'm learning to truly understand what it's useful for. Just so that you know this was my impression at a university as well. In fact, calculus courses are translated into "basic mathematics." I think this underlines how much these courses are about learn…
Hmm. Which kinds of math? Might be useful to begin a compendium of examples, a problem-to-solution (and vice-versa) phrasebook
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#195I've done this as an adult and what worked was Schaum's plus online videos. The idea that you will work through long textbooks is not realistic. Also an algebra cheat sheet esp the common algebra errors. Quick Calculus is also a good book.
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, the quality of the material you use is important. A good teacher can quickly direct you to appropriate materials for your personal needs. A novice learner is generally unable to identify what is or isn't poor quality (hence the OP's question). [Edited to add: This forum has recommended certain materials, but we have no idea whether they suit the OP's needs. There has not been enough two-way communication with th…
For very specialized subjects, I would completely agree. But when it comes to lower-level math - a group of topics that surely have been done to death countless times over, there really should be well-known books (or online courses) by now that learners don't get stuck on. If there aren't, that begs the question why. Though now I'm getting into pointless theorizing territory - as far as practical advice goes, it's tr…
There aren't universally well-known books or courses that suit everyone studying math at this level, and the why is because everybody has their own needs.
What you are calling "lower-level math" includes everything that you might expect people could learn in primary and secondary education, from age 2 to age 16 - that's 15 years in which everyone takes their own path and ends up at a different place. It is specialized.
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#197I was in your position as well and my recommendation is to buy a good book. I personally chose Precalculus by James Stewart and it works for me. It's a thick 1000 pages book with excercises and tests. It quite well explains all topics, which you would have in high school (from basic arithmetics to everything you need to start calculus). I do maths in my spare time (a few hours a week) and I completed 700 pages over p…
You are very persistent! But the efficiency is too low, not to put you down but precalculus is not something you should spend so much time on, there are so much more to learn and so much more fun after precalc. At this rate, it's probably going to take you 10 years to complete calculus and differential equations, which typically college students take a year to finish and start applying. Plus there are abstract algebr…
Thanks for your input :)
Firstly, maths is just my hobby. I didn't pay much attention in my school years, but later in life I wanted to know more about maths.
I'm a typical code monkey, which does business software and hardly needs any maths, so agian maths is just my interests and I don't foresee using it in my career. I might do more maths when I retire as maths is such a broad subject, it will keep me as a hobby to the rest of my life :).
I'm taking it slow as a) I'm not in hurry, b) I want to have solid foundations in maths. I want to ensure I understand well basics and proofs and where they come from. I also do lots of exercices based on acquired knowledge. "Productivity" is not my main concern :)
Interesting thing I found maths helps me with my work indirectly. In maths we encounter problems such as "a plane flew north at 300km/h and side wind east was 30km/h. After 2h, the plane changed direction 30deg...". You need to find all data and best formulas for the problem. It's like translating customer/project owner issues to technical ones. It's fun!
I wish to progress my maths faster, but I can do only x hours a week and want to do it properly. I'm looking forward to more challenging 21st century maths!
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#198I’m going to go with a few assumptions here: a) You don’t do this full time. b) By “bottoms up” you just mean “with firm grasp on fundamentals”, not logic/set/category/type theory approach. c) You are skilled with programming/software in general. In a way, you’re ahead of math peers in that you don’t need to do a lot of problems by hand, and can develop intuition much faster through many software tools available. Eve…
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics is a good resource consisting of a huge collection of detailed articles on many mathematical subjects by knowledgeable contributors. It requires no specialized background and is curated by Fields Medalist Tim Gowers. Whoever reads it from cover to cover is my hero, but failing that there's always an interesting article to jump to. Don't just be a consumer but write something as…
Can you please elaborate more how to be a producer rather than just a consumer in maths? Advice like to do more maths rather than read it is clear and a regular undergrad can follow it. Producing in maths sounds like writing papers to me that I can hardly imaging as an undergrad student. It is actually a problem for me as for a software engineer: in programming I can produce rather early and it creates a motivational feedback plus helps learing things better. With maths I cannot get the feeling of creating anything, the only pleasure is in solving problems from books.
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#199Ok, I'll take a crack at this: Up to high-school level: 1. Precalculus: Precalculus: A Prelude to Calculus - Axler 2. Calculus: The Calculus Tutoring Book - Ash. College: 3. Preparation for Collegel-level maths: 3a. General prep for high level maths: How to Study as a Mathematics Major - Alcock 3b. Proof writing: How to Prove It - A Structured Approach - Velleman OR Book of Proof (2nd ed) - Hammack (it's free!) 4. Ma…
Hi, OP here, thank you so much for the list and effort.
Re: Ask HN: How to self-learn math?
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
This looks great. Do you have a pdf/ebook I can purchase?
I'm still working on generating the MATH eBook, but the 3-in-1 book (MATH+MECH+CALC) is available here: https://gumroad.com/l/noBSmath Chapter 1 of the 3-in-1 book is essentially the same as the No Bullshit guide to Mathematics. You can see a preview here: https://minireference.com/static/excerpts/noBSguide_v5_previ...
what is the difference between no bs guide to mathematics and the 3-in-1 book?