Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#41

Post by snicker7 » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

melling wrote: post #24

snicker7 wrote: post #17

Some math topics I like to read about / play with: - Measure theory / lebesque/daniell integration / stochastic calculus -- super useful but very beautiful. I have a background in mathematical finance. - Combinatorial topology -- Simplicial complexes, polytopes. A more finite/computational flavor of algebraic topology. - Dynamical systems: Highly interdisciplinary. Brings together physics, fractals, calculus, and com…

“History of Mathematics" Anyone have good book recommendations?

"Huygens and Barrow, Newton and Hooke" by Vladimir Arnold (would literally recommend any of his books).

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#42

Post by User23 » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

tgb wrote: post #34

Related: do people have good recommendations of "casual" math books for more advanced topics? I.e. ones that an educated reader with a background in math can read through in one pass (unlike most textbooks) but nonetheless have real math in them? (And has fun exercises!) I can start with some. Feynman's Lectures on Computing. Scott Aaronson's Quantum Computing Since Democritus (though it assumes some background knowl…

Visual Complex Analysis. I’d hesitate to call it casual, but it’s extremely accessible to someone with some basic mathematical knowledge.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#43

Post by tootie » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

Common Core because my kids are in school. I've heard a lot of parents complain, but I actually love it. I've always had a knack for doing arithmetic in my head and common core is teaching all the stuff I do intuitively.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#44

Post by auntienomen » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 6:39 PM UTC

tgb wrote: post #34

Related: do people have good recommendations of "casual" math books for more advanced topics? I.e. ones that an educated reader with a background in math can read through in one pass (unlike most textbooks) but nonetheless have real math in them? (And has fun exercises!) I can start with some. Feynman's Lectures on Computing. Scott Aaronson's Quantum Computing Since Democritus (though it assumes some background knowl…

Roger Penrose' book _The Road to Reality_ is pretty good in this respect. It's a little skewed towards geometry (instead of, e.g., Hilbert spaces and operator algebra), but hey, what do you expect from Penrose.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#45

Post by snicker7 » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 6:42 PM UTC

tgb wrote: post #34

Related: do people have good recommendations of "casual" math books for more advanced topics? I.e. ones that an educated reader with a background in math can read through in one pass (unlike most textbooks) but nonetheless have real math in them? (And has fun exercises!) I can start with some. Feynman's Lectures on Computing. Scott Aaronson's Quantum Computing Since Democritus (though it assumes some background knowl…

John Baez's blogs (Azimuth, This Weeks Finds) are pretty accessible.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#46

Post by excitednumber » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 6:50 PM UTC

I'd love to raise awareness of https://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~aldous/Real_World/RW.html (Probability and the Real World) https://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~aldous/ Professor David Aldous. This is a wonderful resource. I hope you all enjoy.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#47

Post by spekcular » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

snicker7 wrote: post #17

Some math topics I like to read about / play with: - Measure theory / lebesque/daniell integration / stochastic calculus -- super useful but very beautiful. I have a background in mathematical finance. - Combinatorial topology -- Simplicial complexes, polytopes. A more finite/computational flavor of algebraic topology. - Dynamical systems: Highly interdisciplinary. Brings together physics, fractals, calculus, and com…

It's "Lebesgue," not "Lebesque." See here for more on the history of this unfortunately common typo: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1433899/why-is-lebe....

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#48

Post by spekcular » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 6:59 PM UTC

xyzal wrote: post #11

Bartosz Milewski's lectures on category theory are great. Also, the accompanying book is well written (and free)! lectures -> https://www.youtube.com/user/DrBartosz book -> https://github.com/hmemcpy/milewski-ctfp-pdf

What practical applications does it present for programmers? I've looked at this a bit and it just seems like a regular category theory book.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#49

Post by m_j_g » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

homotopy type theory!

Re: Ask HN: What kind of math do you study in your free time?

#50

Post by Koshkin » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 7:04 PM UTC

melling wrote: post #24

snicker7 wrote: post #17

Some math topics I like to read about / play with: - Measure theory / lebesque/daniell integration / stochastic calculus -- super useful but very beautiful. I have a background in mathematical finance. - Combinatorial topology -- Simplicial complexes, polytopes. A more finite/computational flavor of algebraic topology. - Dynamical systems: Highly interdisciplinary. Brings together physics, fractals, calculus, and com…

“History of Mathematics" Anyone have good book recommendations?

Stillwell's Mathematics and Its History.