Math book suggestions

[MattPolofka]

I want to start doing math again. I was always very good at it. My calculus teacher had always annoyed me(abstinence only advocate, I can't stand whiny self righteous morons), so when she said we would have homework every night, even when we had tests, I dropped the class. It didn't seem like something I'd ever need and I was sick of school at that point.    I want to get some books. I'm going to go to the University's library tomorrow to see what I can find. Does anyone have any they think are particularly good? I wanna brush up on some algebra first but I think in a month or so I'll start teaching myself calculus. I mainly need problems to work out, I can find resources to learn from online. I have plenty of books on math, I really just need excercises, which is the main reason I want to start doing math again, brain excerise.

[Pepin]

I'd recommend Calculus Made Easy. It covers Calc 1 and 2 in a simple manner and has a decent number of practice problems. I find calc to be a really amazing topic, especially in how it can be used to find the volume of a sphere.

The Khan Academy is quite good for brushing up on a lot of concepts in trig, more because proofs are offered, as opposed to just being stated. An example of this is the law of cosines, a formula often given with no proof. Even worse, not even an explanation as to where the trig identities comes from.

Since math is the language of physics, and concepts in physics are fun to comprehend, I'd recommend learning some physics. I can give some recommendations if needed

I'd say that the best brain exercise is understanding the concepts and proofs as opposed to being able to solve a multitude of exercise problems. A large issue I had going through most of high school is that I did great on tests as I knew the techniques to solve the problems, but I didn't at all know what I was doing or why. Most other people from what I gather have this issue as well, but aren't as bothered by it.

[Panoptic]

I have that same sort of problem with Pepin. Its difficult to understand what is really going on, but if you study it for a long time concepts start to sink in very slowly and you feel more and more like you really do understand. But math is an abstract subject. There are plenty of things that you can do in math that aren't possible in the real world. Numbers aren't really real. The number 5 is just in your mind. The same with negative numbers, and "imaginary" numbers. Imaginary numbers are just as important in solving systems as "real" numbers are. Doing physics related math problems is a good idea because it shows you why you are doing what you are doing, and math was developed specifically to solve physical problems.

 

Anyway, I would recommend Paul's Online Math Notes. That site has saved me some confusion when I was in differential equations but there is plenty of calculus on there (I didn't know about the site until diff-eq). Its really good at explaining things. I personally don't like Kahn Academy, I find the videos bland and extremely difficult to sit through, but you will get all of the basics there.

 

When you find a good book, make sure you read and understand all of the examples in each section before moving onto the problems. Also, don't ever jump ahead to another section until you are done doing problems with the section you are on. You'll get confused and won't learn as much. Assuming you're doing this in your free time, you have plenty of time to work through each section. See if you can find cheap solution manuals to your textbook online as well.

[SigmaTau]

Try the #math group at IRC freenode.net, they can help you. mathematics is a big field, but it will empower you , to do anything you want. I cant recommend any books because Its not immediately obvious what your level is right now.