/sci/ - Science & Math

My math book says that almost all periodic functions are sinusoidal. Is that true? If so, why? The entire idea of the unit circle and right triangles and how they're related seems so fascinating, it seems like i'm missing something important. I wish I was more intelligent, it's like i'm right on the brink of something incredible, but too dumb to grasp it.

>>9426781
I am in the same boat, anon. I'm also interested in electrical or computer engineering. Self study has worked so far, but i'm still going over basic material so I can't really guarantee what i'm saying applies to you. For me, I would say the most important thing is experience and practice. There's no way around it, you've got to put the time in, you've got to work out problems over and over until you're consistently getting them right. If you got the wrong answer, go back and find what you did wrong, what step you took wrong, what you overlooked, what you misunderstood. Keep at it until you feel comfortable solving a particular type of problem.

After a few days you have to go back over what you learned and review it again because chances are you forgot some or even most of it. Then you'll probably need to go over it again a few weeks later. I've found that the more you "forget" and then relearn something, the better it sticks. Gotta get your mind used to just pulling that specific information/process over and over until it keeps. The good part is it seems a lot of knowledge builds on top of previous knowledge, so as you move on, you use the information you learned before, and in that way keep it fresh on your mind from active use. The hardest thing I've found is retaining information that I haven't used in a while. The other hard part is that with self-learning, I don't have anyone to ask when I hit a dead end. The options are trial and error, asking on the internet (the /sqt/ has helped me many times), or maybe using one of those step-by-step online calculators, but those are not always very helpful. Discipline will get you further than motivation. If you have both, all the better. Good luck on your journey, anon. Hopefully we both achieve our goals.
I'd love any advice anyone else has to offer.