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This thread is locked; no one can reply to it.
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| Need math refresher |
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Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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It's been over a year since I've had any math, and two years since I've had anything but calculus. And, while trying to help a friend out on a trig problem today, I found out that I've forgotten mostly everything. This is not good. I need to refresh my skills in Algebra, Trigonometry, and Calculus. I still have the textbooks from these classes, but I feel that just reading from the books may not be enough for me. Are there any online resources to help me relearn the basics of these areas of math? I suppose I should throw in geometry, too, although I don't have a book for that.
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Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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You should never forget math if you learned it properly. For example, I can still recite pi to 32 digits: 3.1869012341209423999999999999912. Why are you worried? What's the purpose of the studying? You can only fit a certain amount of information into your brain, so forgetting unimportant stuff is just the natural way to keep space available for something better. I think most people can remember around 824 things. |
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Neil Walker
Member #210
April 2000
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I know about 30,000 words. Do you think I should reduce that to maybe 500 to store more stuff other than words Neil. wii:0356-1384-6687-2022, kart:3308-4806-6002. XBOX:chucklepie |
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Trent Gamblin
Member #261
April 2000
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I took university credit math courses in high school, and passed them all as well as all of the other "advanced" math courses. After leaving high school I worked in construction and stuff like that. When I got back into programming, I found I didn't remember hardly any math at all that I learned in school from about grade 9 or 10 on. I had to relearn trigonometry, calculus (though I never used calculus practically so I forget most of it again, but I have a better idea of what its about then I ever did in high school), and some other basic stuff...
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Dizzy Egg
Member #10,824
March 2009
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@Neil: x = y * z where: y = number of posts that don't have anything to do with your question I'm awful at maths so that's all the help I can offer
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bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
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I've also basically forgotten most of what I learned in high school math. Maybe we should add math sections to the wiki. -- acc.js | al4anim - Allegro 4 Animation library | Allegro 5 VS/NuGet Guide | Allegro.cc Mockup | Allegro.cc <code> Tag | Allegro 4 Timer Example (w/ Semaphores) | Allegro 5 "Winpkg" (MSVC readme) | Bambot | Blog | C++ STL Container Flowchart | Castopulence Software | Check Return Values | Derail? | Is This A Discussion? Flow Chart | Filesystem Hierarchy Standard | Clean Code Talks - Global State and Singletons | How To Use Header Files | GNU/Linux (Debian, Fedora, Gentoo) | rot (rot13, rot47, rotN) | Streaming |
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Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
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bamccaig said: Maybe we should add math sections to the wiki. Please do! -- |
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Billybob
Member #3,136
January 2003
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I never much enjoyed doing math in school. And yet I can still remember how to do most of it.
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Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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Well, I might take more math classes in the future, so I may actually need to remember this stuff. I guess I'll just try studying out of the textbooks. I was hoping for something a bit easier, since I'm already predisposed to hate math.
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Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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Instead of studying for the sake of studying, how about actually doing something more enjoyable that happens to use some math? For starters, create a simple 2D game that uses trigonometry. |
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Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
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Math seems different to me than most other courses, economics 101 or World History can be absorbed by just reading it, but to "understand" math you can't just read, you have to DO SOME PROBLEMS. It's like weight lifting. Billybob must be some sort of mutant, or he hasn't actually tried doing some of these problems he seems to recall. That said, we now have computer animations that make concepts easier to grasp. {"name":"350px-Pi-unrolled-720.gif","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/9\/8\/98d2d4447d17f3bfc1638aca5edce37b.gif","w":350,"h":111,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/9\/8\/98d2d4447d17f3bfc1638aca5edce37b"} They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas. |
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Bob Keane
Member #7,342
June 2006
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Dont listen to them. Pi is exactly 3. I think the only way to learn anything is by applying it. Following the book is okay, but you get to the point where you have to ask "What does it all mean?". By reading this sig, I, the reader, agree to render my soul to Bob Keane. I, the reader, understand this is a legally binding contract and freely render my soul. |
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SiegeLord
Member #7,827
October 2006
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Matthew Leverton said: Instead of studying for the sake of studying, how about actually doing something more enjoyable that happens to use some math? For starters, create a simple 2D game that uses trigonometry. I second this. I keep up my reasonably high level of math understanding because I always use much of it in my programming. There is a problem of knowing exactly what to use though... so some quick review will still be necessary. "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow."-Ecclesiastes 1:18 |
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Paul whoknows
Member #5,081
September 2004
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3.1869012341209423999999999999912 ? Oh wait, my sarcasm detector is failing again! ____ "The unlimited potential has been replaced by the concrete reality of what I programmed today." - Jordan Mechner. |
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I used to be quite good at math (it was basically my favorite subject, except for perhaps computers) so I just hope all of this beer that I drink isn't destroying those brain cells... 
It would be nice to refresh the stuff that I've forgotten and the stuff that I was distracted from learning. 
It's a curse.
