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Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

#21
https://www.3blue1brown.com has you covered for linear algebra. Now as far as the math needed for physics, I highly suggest Roger Penrose's 'Road to Reality' (https://www.amazon.com/Road-Reality-Complete-Guide-Universe/...). As the reviews say it's not an easy read but what it does provide you with is all the mathematics you're going to need to learn to understand today's physics. The book provides a high-level overview of the mathematics - which is technically complete but so concise that it's difficult to learn from. So use that to take a deeper dive into a mathematical subject. What the book is really providing is a roadmap: you need to understand these concepts from these mathematical disciplines to understand this area of physics and then proceeds with the high-level description of those concepts. Take the deep dive as needed and you'll be amply rewarded.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

#23
post #16
post #2

Being in your thirties has little to do with learning. How you learn is much more important than your age. If you learn best in a classroom, you may have a local college that teaches math in the evenings. (I got my Master's in Statistics that way.) If you learn best in small chunks, Khan Academy has differential and integral calculus and linear algebra, to start you out. If you learn best from books... there are hund…

Very true. My learning actually accelerated in my 30s because knowledge pays compound interest -- the more knowledge you have, the faster it is to acquire new knowledge. Assuming one has continued to pursue learning, someone in their 30s would have built up a significant enough semantic tree to pin new knowledge to. Most people find it hard to learn in their 30s because they lack the energy, environment (+kids, +spou…

Old people cannot learn new shit. That's why they hate new frameworks and languages.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

#24
I'm a web developer. In my 20's I used to love picking things up just for the of it. These days I'm more of a fan of JIT learning. Push the edges of my map as I go. I'm still constantly learning, but it's more iterative. Building on conquered territory and shifting the borders as needed (always outward, but the focus on which parts of the border to push changes.) Previously I was more like a crazed monkey and never holding any ground. I still feel the importance of occasionally sneaking outside my borders and going deep into enemy territory, but those are constrained efforts. Invade, gather booty, sift for intelligence value and then decide if it's worth a more serious invasion.

Maybe figure out an actual destination and then devise a plan to get there. Deep diving into math and physics just for the sake of learning etc seems to be cargo-culting. Lawyers also sound smart until you realize they write like they do intentionally to keep people from figuring them out.

> I follow a bunch of folks on the internet and idolize them for their multifaceted personalities - be it math, programming/problem solving, physics, music etc. And these people had a natural flair for math/physics which was nurtured by their environment which made them participate in IOI/ACPC etc.

Sounds like they are good story-tellers along with whatever else they do. Have you tried putting anything out for others to consume? If you want to be like these people, then it would be good to start with writing / shipping things. If you have been doing that already, then post some links. ;)

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

#25
post #8

The Feynman Lectures on Physics. I found 50th anniversary hard-bound edition at the Los Alamos book store. Very readable. Feynman explains things like no other. The audio recordings are out there, though video should have been made of these. A real loss for humanity.

There are recordings of the lectures on YouTube. I'm not sure if they're complete or not, but there's a good bit there. I just wish Feynman had presented his Lectures on Computation similarly. The book is great, though usually hard to find.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

#26
post #17

Watch the 3Blue1Brown YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw These videos are frankly better explanation of college-level math concepts than most college classes. Also, now you probably care much more about the intuitions of mathematics over the raw mechanics of it. Once again, this channel perfectly exemplifies this concept.

I second this. I was refreshing some of the linear algebra I learned in college recently and his videos gave far more insight into what linear algebra is actually about than I was taught in college. If everyone studying linear algebra in school watched his videos before taking the course they would have a much easier time learning it. His calculus series is of similarly high quality and I would imagine his other videos are too.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

#27
There is one sure way, and it’s a test of your fortitude. You find a a college textbook with the answers to the even-numbered problems in the back. You sit down in a warm or hot room, and solve them. If the textbook is in its 4th printing or so, the answers are correct. On a few, you’ll have to work for hours. Now here is a very, very, important point. All the learning occurs on the problems you struggle with. In the blind alleys. A lot of learning in physics comprises paring down your misconceptions until the correct methodology, often surprisingly simple, appears. Then, you understand how to apply the basic laws to the problem at hand, which is what physics is. I’ll emphasize the point by stating it’s converse. A problem you can solve easily and quickly yields zero knowledge.

I would recommend two outstanding textbooks. Halliday and Resnick, early editions , printed in the late 60s and 70s. If you can do all the odd problems in this two volume set, you are an educated person, regardless of your greater aspirations. Edward Purcell’s Berkeley Physics Series Second Volume on Electricity and Magnetism. Might be the best undergraduate physics textbook ever written. Did you know that magnetism arises from electrostatics and relativistic length contraction? It’s right there. You should also get yourself a copy of Feynman’s Lectures on Physics. Warning. Read it for intuition, motivation, the story of Mr. Bader, and entertainment. It’s at much too advanced a point of view to help you solve nuts and bolts physics exercises, which is what you must do. One final warning. Every one of us sits at a desk with a powerful internet-connected computer. Don’t do this. Even get a calculator to avoid this. Of course, when you are stumped you’ll want to see how a topic has been treated by others. Do it in another room.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

#28
I'm writing a book called "A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics". Would you like to see a draft? Shoot me an email at mathintersectprogramming@gmail.com

It's an introduction to mathematics from a programmer's standpoint, with a big focus on taste and that second level of intuition beyond rote manipulation and memorization.

Includes chapters on sets, graphs, calculus, linear algebra, and more! Each chapter has an application (a working Python implementation) of the ideas in the chapter. The applications range from physics to economics to machine learning and cryptography. One chapter even implements a Tensorflow-like neural network.

There's also a mailing list: https://jeremykun.com/2016/04/25/book-mailing-list/

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?

#29
Anyone who tells you can "learn" math and pyhsics by just watching videos is lying to you. There is no substitute for actually doing lots of problems.

Pick a book, pick a pace to work through it, and spend a few months going through it. Do the exercises in the back of each chapter, work through the solutions, and ask around if you still can't figure it out. Persistance and routine are key here.

As for books, I like Stewart's Calculus, Lay's Linear Algebra, and Hammack's Book of Proof.

For physics, I don't know what your background is. Giancoli is a popular undergrad freshman year book, where as griffith's electrodynamics is a bit more advanced.

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