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/sci/ - Science & Math

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1457764 No.1457764 [Reply] [Original]

/sci/borgs,
How the fuck do I get better at math(s)?

I feel like I've just been teaching myself to get an A on every test for the passed 5 years without giving a shit about the holistic meaning of whatever I'm learning.

Show me dx/dt=192939x^2+e^(yourmom) and tell me to do whatever the fuck with it and I can do it no problem. But I don't get what the shit I'm doing actually means? nahmean? I feel like a monkey.

Anyone feel the same way?
Halp?

>> No.1457768

www.khanacademy.org

Go crazy.

>> No.1457767
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1457767

>I feel like a monkey, anyone feel the same way?

Nah dude, I'm white

>> No.1457775

graphs. algerbra, trig, and calc can all be understood by graphs.

in general you can understand a type of math through the visual interpretation of it, because that is what you are actually doing. the algerbra is just symbolic ways of manipulating things that can also be understood visually.

>> No.1457776

>>1457767

you're an ape.

>> No.1457780

>>1457775
uhhh i'm talking more about beyond a fucking graph bro....

>> No.1457789

OP whats the highest math class youve taken?

>> No.1457792

>>1457789
Diff equations and linear algebra

>> No.1457800

>>1457789
I'm looking for

A Brief History of Time:physics::????:math

yaknow something that roughly explains how the shit was discovered, why we wanted to discover it, what it's purpose in the real world is....

>> No.1457813

>>1457780
well there is graphs and proofs, proofs would allow you to see why a derivative makes mathematical sense, but you should have already learned the proofs in calc 1. if you understand and can visualize what you are doing in your head, then you do understand the "holistic meaning". if you can't then you maybe just have a low spacial IQ and can only manipulate algerbra like a monkey.

>> No.1457815

>>1457775
What resources do you suggest for this?

>> No.1457830

>>1457813
i am way better than any one of the fellow students of mine at visualizing graphs.

i am talking about the purpose/history of the math. considering math is invented, someone had to see some purpose in making up new shit. i want to know why.


see >>1457800

>> No.1457831

lmao, "graphs and proofs." Protip, a "graph" is a map g : x --> (x,f(x)) and since the second variable is in R^2 we can graph it as a coordinate. Graphs are a small part of a small part of a small part of mathematics. It is a topic called "algebraic geometry."

It's always possible to teach yourself more mathematics, especially if you're interested and you haven't learned high school shit.

In high school, the four main math topics are: algebra, geometry, calculus, prob+stats. Algebra deals with manipulations of variables and, for some reason, the graphs of these things; geometry deals with plane and sometimes solid geometry (measures, areas, volumes, angles, and the like); calculus deals with rates of change and measurements of "moving" or "dynamic" one-variable objects (such as time-dependent motion). Prob + Stat is exactly what it sounds like.

The problem is, when you go to college for math, you don't do any of this shit. The three "main" topics are: analysis, algebra, and topology.

>> No.1457836

>>1457815
a book called Proofs Without Words.

heres an example of the type of stuff it has in it:
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/ctk/pww.shtml

and Wolfram Demonstrations Project:

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/topic.html?topic=Topology&limit=20

>> No.1457855

>>1457836
actually thats a shitty example of what the book has in it. The book has way more cool stuff. this is a better example:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&q=proofs+without+words&um=1&ie=UTF-8&amp
;source=univ&ei=z9ZHTKiXA5CCsQOzuvnlCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnu
m=4&ved=0CDEQsAQwAw&biw=1280&bih=833

>> No.1457856

Analysis is the study of rigid distances and things like this. Essentially, it is the study of "why calculus works" --- but, of course, it goes beyond this and allows us to study things like complex variables (like f(z) where z is complex, instead of f(x) where x is real) as well as functions of functions, and functions that map big things into little things.

Algebra is "how we build math." We build up special structures which are similar to the real numbers or the rational numbers or the integers, and we do math on them. But we can also define things like "clock arithmetic" where 11 + 2 = 1, and so on. Many strange things crop up in algebra when you make up strange groups and fields to work with --- but it's very powerful. One of the first things you do is prove that no matter HOW HARD YOU TRY, you can't make something like the quadratic formula for functions that start with x^5 instead of x^2. Pret wild.

Topology is like geometry, except we don't give a shit about angles, distances, and stuff like this. We can take a donut (classic example) and smoosh it around to make it a coffee cup. Less trivially, we can take a wine bottle (theoretically!), remove the cork, and smoosh it into a pancake. Yeah, this is really math.

So, depending on what you think you'd like to do, there are a number of good resources to learn these which do not really require high school math so much as a motivated individual who wants to learn.

>> No.1457894

>>1457830
>someone had to see some purpose in making up new shit.

lol OP thinks math has a purpose, and is not purely intelectual masturbation.

Protip OP: one of the greatest mathematicians was offered a $1 M prize for proving that if you cant tie a knot around something, then it is a sphere.

and it took mathematicians until the 70's or some shit, to prove that you can color any map with 4 colors, which is the same as proving that you can not draw 5 areas in a plane which touch each other. which any 5th grader can figure out with a pencil and paper in 2 minutes.

math is basically pedantism to an extreme level, its not enough just to show that something works 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the time, they have to spend the extra 400 years of mental masturbation to show that it works 100% of the time.

>> No.1457906

>>1457831
>>1457836
>>1457855
>>1457856
thanks for the serious responses...

as for,
>>1457894
yeah thanks bro, but i'd never be able to apply what i've learned to the map or knot-sphere shit unless i actually get the meaning of it

>> No.1457919

>>1457836
fukn awesum

>> No.1457958

pick up some Bertrand Russel if you want philosophy

>> No.1457996

Do more problems.