Ask HN: How to get good at math if you are too bad with math

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3005653

by throwaway2211 • 15 years ago

19 15 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I am too bad at doing math, starting from algebra, trigonometry, calculus etc. I am a good programmer though, I can glue api's and do some pretty good programming. But I want to get knowledge and work on some advanced computer science topics. How can I improve my bad mathematics and get good at both math and CS? I have a full time job. So all i can do is study on my own. Please help

medinism• 15 years ago

I would start with number theory and getting very good at managing numbers in your head. I bought a book "how to calculate quickly" to help me with that. MOst algebra and calculus problems could be solved quite easily by running approximations in your head that solve the equation at hand. I learned this method from prof Feynman in his famous book "you must be joking Mr Feynman"

tgerhard• 15 years ago

What are you interested in? How in depth are you willing to study? I'm basically in the same boat and recently out of the blue developed a passion for math. I found there are plenty of free books available online. Right now I'm studying combinatorics, but every so often I take a couple of Khan Academy classes on trig. You might also want to check out Project Euler that offers the chance to combine math and programming.

ral• 15 years ago

I just checked out Project Euler - awesome, thank you!

kaybe• 15 years ago

If you want real maths and not just calculating, you'll need to do lots and lots of exercises. It's best if someone more experienced can grade them (it's hard to judge your own proofs), but looking at solutions helps too. You can get books for that (I don't know about ebooks), just ask around and have a look inside (Is there a university with a library nearby? You can try there.), different people need different books.

I like the math part of The Art of Computer Programming (in the first book) by D. Knuth. It has exercises with solutions and, as the name says, is orientated towards maths useful for programming. Plus, it's a good read. The whole series came highly recommended, but I'm still in the first part, so I can't judge it yet. ^^

S4M• 15 years ago

I realized that most people (including me) sometimes fail to understand some maths notions because they don't try enough to understand them. What I mean is that some notions are complicated, really complicated, and often people with good will go straight on doing exercises, hoping that somehow, that will make them understand. So my advice is: dont rush. Try to understand the core principles. There are theorems, try to understand how to prove them. Will the theorems still hold if you remove some hypothesis? What can happen?

Of course the way of learning I suggest is not easy or fast, especially for someone who is busy with a full time job, but I guarantee that if you do it you will build for yourself some solid grounds, and you will feel yourself more intelligent.

Out of interest, I am curious why you need to become better at maths.

throwaway2211• 15 years ago

I want to learn advanced CS so that i can do more interesting jobs. Like Machine learning or Large data analysis. But for most of that i will need to be good at math. So i need to learn math for that.

horofox• 15 years ago

Study algebra and trigonometry fist(basic stuff that you should have studied in high school) then proceed to study calculus. It's REALLY pointless trying to go calculus not knowing proper algebra at least, believe me :P

karlzt• 15 years ago

check out this funny, yet effective, introduction to calculus book from 1914: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33283/33283-pdf.pdf. Richard Feynman used this book and then learned calculus at age 15.

wallawe• 15 years ago

Great link there. I think I learned more in the first 5 minutes reading that than I did my first 3 attempts at Cal I

impendia• 15 years ago

+1. I've been teaching calculus for years, and this is easily the best book I've ever seen.

pasbesoin• 15 years ago

For those who want to know the title without having to examine a PDF:

Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus Phillips Thompson

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33283

P.S. Gave you an upvote. Just would have preferred to know the title / have a pointer to a non-PDF reference since one was available.

dataduck• 15 years ago

I actually help people with this kind of thing for a living, as a personal tutor - drop me a line if you're interested.

ekm2• 15 years ago

Visit ArtOf ProblemSolving.com(AOPS).That is the HN of Mathematics.

phektus• 15 years ago

http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/eohrr/to_everyone_who_...

So head to khanacademy.org, start with algebra and work on all exercises. Then go to the other subjects.

I highly suggest you pick one particular graduate level math subjects and sounds interesting to you and make that your goal.

mhd• 15 years ago

I'm in a similar situation. Mathematics (just like drawing and some languages) is a big item on my Someday/Maybe issue, so I collected some materials but haven't gone through most of them yet. So take the following stuff that was recommended to me cum grano salis.

- George Polya - How to Solve It

Interesting book on proofs and a logical approach to problem solving. Original title was "School of Thinking"…

- Lancelot Hogben - Mathematics for the Millions - Silvanus P Thompson - Calculus Made Easy

Two older books that came well recommended (have been mentioned in this thread already). Not sure if that's due to the readers or their teachers nostalgia or well founded yet.

- The Manga Guide to Calculus

Erm, yeah. (I did like the Manga Guide to Databases, though)

- Benjamin & Shermer - Secrets of Mental Math

How to do mental arithmetics quickly. Good for igniting the spark and impress your friends…

Also, some book on mathematics by Russian, who employ some different methods in teaching, but I can't find the book nor its title right now, must be in some moving box. (Generally, talk to Russians. They're creepy when it comes to maths and chess)

Ask HN: How to get good at math if you are too bad with math

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