/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.9759523]

What textbooks or books does /sci/ recommend for someone trying to grasp the most fundamental concepts of math? Or in essence how to intuitively think in math.

I'm in uni and I've taken calculus and statistics and do fine in them but the thing that is always hard for me to grasp is simply understanding the most basic mathematical concepts. For example I can learn how to do triple integrals in spherical coordinates but I never truly understand how I would look at a sphere and know that the coordinate system I am using makes sense for a sphere or how I could look at a set of inputs and outputs and come up with an equation for the total amount of combinations for both in a given system.

Basically if I am given the equations and the process I can figure out the answer but if I am given the problem or figure I have no clue how to come up with an equation or a process to try and solve or explain it.

[Anonymous No.9760215]

>>9759523
Sorry but I don’t think any textbook is going to give you a higher iq

[Anonymous No.9760239]

>>9759523
Bob Miller's Clueless series
Kalid Azad's Math Better Explained
Bill Handley's Speed Mathematics
Go one step at a time, do not get ahead of yourself, understand everything fully before moving on, and do all the practice work.

[Anonymous No.9760262]

>>9759523
>For example I can learn how to do triple integrals in spherical coordinates but I never truly understand how I would look at a sphere and know that the coordinate system I am using makes sense for a sphere
At least you are learning this in a math class, i learned this during a physic class (electrostatic), that was a fucking nightmare with the fucking constants everywhere, the multiples vectors on a tiny scheme on the board, i should have taken a photo, it was impossible to understand at first.

[Anonymous No.9760311]

Could you expand on what you are having trouble? Really understanding why a lot of shit work requires inquiry into more abstract subjects. Your two examples seem weird. The first one, well you can prove that for constant r, you have a parametric equation of a sphere by just taking the square of the norm and seing it's constant and it's equal to r^2. A more difficult thing to do is to show that in fact, for every point in the spherw, you can find a set of angles that give you that point, but it's still mostly just doing it. You want a more geometric interpretation? Well there are plenty, but in practice I mostly just look it up, though now I know it by heart just by using it multiple times. You are not expected to derive it all by yourself without reading it first if that is your concern.

[Anonymous No.9760327]

>>9760262
same. my school fucked up scheduling and put mathematical methods (including vector analysis) on the same semester as electromagnetism. closest i ever came to losing my shit over mathematics