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Relearning math as an adult

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Re: Relearning math as an adult

#151

Post by JohnKemeny »

roenxi wrote: post #147
mjburgess wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sure, but you dont need to understand actual set theory -- it's just notation for mostly obvious programming stuff, R means float, Z means int R^2 is actually notation from linear algebra, but here it means a point is 2 floats with a measure of distance between points etc. A lot of this could just be given in a "crib sheet" for tech people, and you'd get 80% of it straightaway. It's years of work to understand this n…

> sure, but you dont need to understand actual set theory How would you know? You sound like you understand set theory. Ironically, a body needs a rather extensive grounding in the theory and practice of set theory to look at something and think "I don't need to use the tools of set theory here" with deserved confidence. A lot of maths is about having a huge repertoire of tricks that you know won't help solve the pro…

He's saying you don't have to understand set theory to use and understand set notation.

In the same way that you don't have to understand number theory and abstract algebra to use and understand numbers and their basic operations (such as +, -, ·, /).

Re: Relearning math as an adult

#152

Post by bsaul »

I've been looking for exactly that, for exactly the same reasons, for a few years now. Never got the motivation to start digging back into my old math university books.

Thanks for the post. It does read a bit like an ad, but it feels authentic, and meets exactly my current need, so i'll just jump right into it !

Thanks again !

Re: Relearning math as an adult

#153

Post by Math-Ninja »

mabedan wrote: post #132
eps wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could've asked them to add this option. They are very responsive and reasonable.

I did. They replied a generic corporate answer that we do the best for our customers and they said I’m free to cancel my subscription

Hi, I'm Alex, Curriculum Director at Math Academy.

It is on our radar to allow students to "place out" of certain topics and modules if they feel ready. We'll call them "mini-diagnostics" or something similar when they're ready. I believe it will be worked on within the next few months.

Unfortunately, these things do take time to implement, but we are listening. FWIW, we're a tiny, bootstrapped company with literally two programmers (Justin, our ML/backend dev, and Jason, our founder and solo UX/UI) working on the entire codebase.

The content team is a little larger. We have around 12, mostly PhD mathematicians, working on the content, which is why the context is probably a little further ahead in some respects.

Re: Relearning math as an adult

#154

Post by cloogshicer »

davorak wrote: post #54
dcw303 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory is that people who like math have a reward system that responds well to gaining an understanding on empirical concepts. I have that, and it does drive me to keep studying math. Not that I find it easy though, I don't think I'm able to skip steps, and I often have to repeat things I've already done before they sink in. The difference is that I find this process enjoyable, so I don't mind spending the time. I…

> The difference is that I find this process enjoyable, so I don't mind spending the time. This is definitely the difference for at least some of the people out there, however... Imagine however that you do enjoy it at the start so you move on from topic Y to topic Y+1, then to to Y+2. However you find that you no longer understand Y and you need Y when you are doing trying to learn Y+3 so you study Y+3 and Y, now yo…

I think this is an excellent observation. Interest definitely matters, but so does talent.

Re: Relearning math as an adult

#155

Post by gunnihinn »

boxfire wrote: post #3

I may be biased as I am a trained Mathematician, but I always feel when someone says "Math is Hard", that is because they had bad teachers. Math is easy if you build up from fundamentals, not like physics education where you say "but lets delete everything before because it had an oversimplifying assumption", rather if you build your knowledge entirely sequentially from things you know or assume, you build up a toolb…

> I may be biased as I am a trained Mathematician, but I always feel when someone says "Math is Hard", that is because they had bad teachers.

I dunno, man. I have a PhD in complex differential geometry and think math is pretty hard.

Re: Relearning math as an adult

#157

Post by Math-Ninja »

bambataa wrote: post #137
juunpp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's basically what it is. There is nothing to learn from this post other than "smash that beta sign-up button". Has anyone tried that course? Is it any good?

I have been doing the Math for ML course and would recommend. I have UK A level math but not Further Math, so up to basic calculus. But I forgot most of it and so Math Academy has me going through a lot of the Math Foundation units along the way. I was initially put off by the monthly price, as it is quite steep. The clincher is that about a year before starting Math Academy I had gone through the Open University’s M…

Hi, I'm Alex, curriculum director at Math Academy.

Thanks for your comments. In response to the things you'd like us to have:

"ability to skip lessons" - we plan on introducing "mini-diagnostics" sometime soon, hopefully within the next few months. This will allow students to "place out" of certain content they know. The primary diagnostic assessment will have done most of the grunt work here, but mini-diagnostics can be used for fine-tuning the knowledge frontier.

"a reference page to track unlocked material" - This is an interesting idea that we can discuss.

"fewer multiple choice questions" - We're actively introducing "Free Response" across the entire curriculum. Complete coverage across all courses will likely take several months, maybe over one year. Many of our lower-grade students should be seeing lots of free-response questions already.

"more in-depth problems" - we have multipart problems in most courses. We plan to add many more. Introducing "challenge problems" into the curriculum is also something we have planned for the near future.

"proof-based math" - We plan on launching our "Methods of Proof" course within the next 6-8 weeks. This course is designed to introduce students to all fundamental concepts related to proof building: sets, logic, functions, relations, cardinality, proof by induction, direct proofs, counterexample, contrapositive, contradiction, and trivial and vacuous proofs, to name a few. Most of the content is already ready. We have a few technical challenges to overcome before it can be launched due to our new "proof" question format, but we have a clear idea of how these challenges are to be resolved, so 6-8 weeks is certainly realistic.

Re: Relearning math as an adult

#158

Post by Tainnor »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #148
roenxi wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sure, but you dont need to understand actual set theory How would you know? You sound like you understand set theory. Ironically, a body needs a rather extensive grounding in the theory and practice of set theory to look at something and think "I don't need to use the tools of set theory here" with deserved confidence. A lot of maths is about having a huge repertoire of tricks that you know won't help solve the pro…

> > sure, but you dont need to understand actual set theory > How would you know? You sound like you understand set theory. Easy: most mathematicians don't really care about set theory (beyond the fact that it exists and is the standard foundation). Understanding set theory goes deep. For example: why does the Banach-Tarski paradox exist in ZFC (C: Axiom of Choice ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice )), b…

Not every mathematician needs to understand axiomatic set theory, but probably every working mathematician needs to understand at least basic set operations, simple identites like De Morgan's laws (I don't care if you know the name or not), as well as what cartesian products, relations and functions are.

Re: Relearning math as an adult

#159

Post by aleph_minus_one »

Tainnor wrote: post #158
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > sure, but you dont need to understand actual set theory > How would you know? You sound like you understand set theory. Easy: most mathematicians don't really care about set theory (beyond the fact that it exists and is the standard foundation). Understanding set theory goes deep. For example: why does the Banach-Tarski paradox exist in ZFC (C: Axiom of Choice ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice )), b…

Not every mathematician needs to understand axiomatic set theory, but probably every working mathematician needs to understand at least basic set operations, simple identites like De Morgan's laws (I don't care if you know the name or not), as well as what cartesian products, relations and functions are.

> every working mathematician needs to understand at least basic set operations, simple identites like De Morgan's laws (I don't care if you know the name or not), as well as what cartesian products, relations and functions are.

This is stuff that you learn in the 5th or 6th grade in school, and is about as far removed from what mathematicians call "set theory" as basic arithmetic operations are from college math courses for soon-to-be mathematicians.

Re: Relearning math as an adult

#160

Post by huhtenberg »

Math-Ninja wrote: post #157
bambataa wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been doing the Math for ML course and would recommend. I have UK A level math but not Further Math, so up to basic calculus. But I forgot most of it and so Math Academy has me going through a lot of the Math Foundation units along the way. I was initially put off by the monthly price, as it is quite steep. The clincher is that about a year before starting Math Academy I had gone through the Open University’s M…

Hi, I'm Alex, curriculum director at Math Academy. Thanks for your comments. In response to the things you'd like us to have: "ability to skip lessons" - we plan on introducing "mini-diagnostics" sometime soon, hopefully within the next few months. This will allow students to "place out" of certain content they know. The primary diagnostic assessment will have done most of the grunt work here, but mini-diagnostics ca…

> "a reference page to track unlocked material"

If this is implemented to resemble an "upgrade tree" found in games, I bet it could work as an extra motivator for the kid audiences.

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