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/sci/ - Science & Math

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10489697 No.10489697 [Reply] [Original]

CS student desu
Should I consider myself insufficiently skilled at maths if I can't intuitively figure out the function for the sum of an infinite series?
Is there anything I could do to try to hone this skill?

>> No.10489709

>Is there anything I could do to try to hone this skill?
What have you tried?

>> No.10489711

>>10489709
building muscle

>> No.10489717

if I could pass it you can
make sure you ditch the ego and really look at where your weakness are and if you didn't study anything in high school like me and instead fuckd off get your alegbra skills up then look into calc a bit and discrete math or whatever they'll call it will be easier
proofs, sequences, sets and mapping numbers these are most things that I remember right off hand that I had never heard of in high school
but this here is murica son so it's typical
youtube vids for refreshing back on everything and try to understand the concepts before you dive into the mechanics of the math
it's much easier if say you see some charts before hand and it makes sense to you then to look at the math and see why that is
poof im gone

>> No.10489719

>>10489709
Just staring at some problems in a textbook. I thought I'd be able to guess, just like with everything before that, but I honestly can't even imagine handling something infinite inside of my finite mind. I suppose there must be some kind of trick or way of solving these problems, but I've got no idea.

>> No.10489722

-1/12

>> No.10489734

>>10489719
>I suppose there must be some kind of trick or way of solving these problems, but I've got no idea.
Read the chapter in your text.

>> No.10489860

>>10489697
All of the sums in your pic are just geometric series.
>figure out the function for the sum of an infinite series
Being familiar with the taylor series of common functions helps a lot.
Knowing common fourier series can also help.
You just evaluate the taylor series at a point (usually at 1) to sum the series.

It's kinda a black magic to be able to construct a function that has the right coefficients from series you already know. Usually you need to use addition, multiplication, and differentiation on common taylor series to get what you need.

If you can master the dark art, you can solve many infinite sums, recurrence relations, and combinatorics problems.

Once you're a wizard of the highest order, you can start trying to sum divergent series like >>10489722 implies.

>> No.10489881

>>10489697
It comes down to how much time you put into it.

>> No.10489920

>>10489697
these series are stupid. Especially something like (n) on the right. Math teachers try to be edgy and make students feel like they are doing something interesting when in reality they themselves don't understand analysis deep enough.

>> No.10489938

>>10489697

I'm not a CS student but I would bet you don't need this for your typical CS job. Assuming you don't want to pursue a career path that requires deep knowledge in math (e.g. researcher), I wouldn't worry much about your math skills. It's better to focus on getting better at what you're already good at and/or what you find interesting. It's called specialization, and it is extremely valuable in the job market these days.

However, if you really want to pursue a career that requires math knowledge, you better work hard. Look for general math resources online, especially online courses and lectures, which are usually more gentle than textbooks. Once you get the fundamentals, go for the textbooks.

>> No.10489971

>>10489697
I'm confused, aren't you solving for x in each these? Using the formula a/(1-r) I got x=sqrt2 - 1 for a). I plugged in a = 1, and r = -x then solved. I might just be retarded though.

>> No.10489987

>>10489697
First of all, your first skill should be to check your work with OEIS.org since it can tell you what every single one of those sequences are
Second, the reason you don't know this, is because you do not have the underlying fundamentals. Watch these math history lectures https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL55C7C83781CF4316 the infinite series lecture will tell you how these came about and how to solve them and the rest of the lectures will fill in the blanks you are missing on everything else.

>> No.10490044

>>10489987
shut up wildberger