Math… no thanks, can’t help. My youngest did calc 1,2, & 3 in her med track. I was looking at her note book. Pages of what appeared to be alien cuneiform. I said it looked like a lot of equations. She smiled and told the 4 pages I was looking at was 1 “problem”. I didn’t believe I’d need any of the math I was exposed to High School. Until I wanted to figure out how many bags of mulch I needed for the landscape circle around a tree…
Posts: 102 | Location: NEPA | Registered: February 28, 2019
I did OK (C+ to B-) in math all the way through Calc by doing my homework problems 2 or 3 times. I never did "see" what was being solved. I could never dream of helping my kids with a calc problem years after taking my final Calc class. My hat is off to mathematicians.
Algebra & various Geometry, but Non-calculus thereafter.
Looking for simplified learner text on the vocabulary & 'how to read' those formulas. NOT 'how to solve them' but 'translating the symbols into English'.
My notion here is a mathematician reads the formula somewhat like a text sentence. The formula are a foreign language that symbolizes some math function operation. Where can I find a simplified key to translating this?
Sure enough, he’s evaluating an integral from s to 2s, so a=1 and b=2, which is what he was missing because the s threw him off. He had no trouble finding the anti-derivative and completing the problem.
Originally posted by RogueJSK: I'm glad you were able to help. My dad wasn't able to help me much with math classes past about middle school.
The lowest grade I got in high school was in Calculus, and it was also the grade I was most proud of. The teacher was awful. She'd do a terrible job of explaining stuff, and then get mad at any student who asked questions or tried to get further clarification because they didn't understand.
I didn't hit calculus until college and tried to take the non-engineering oriented calculus. Unfortunately, I hit a visiting professor from Canada that thought American students were idiots. Instead of teaching the basic calculus, he was going for advanced. So advanced that out of 100 possible points on the midterm, 42 was the highest score and 16 was the C of the grade curve. His assessment, it should be hard, that's how tests are and how you should learn and thought we were all idiots. I immediately applied for Pass/Fail (basically a grading exemption that would record the class as "passed" for prereq purposes but neither a pass or a fail would affect GPA). Only class I failed. I had been intending to minor in Geology (I LOVE paleontology) but that ended that. Totally soured me on Calculus and the only fail I ever kept.
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Posts: 2141 | Location: T-town in the 253 | Registered: January 16, 2013
Originally posted by Oscars father:”. I didn’t believe I’d need any of the math I was exposed to High School. Until I wanted to figure out how many bags of mulch I needed for the landscape circle around a tree…
I’ve used trig twice. Once to build a swingset on a hill about 10 years ago. The second time was 2 months ago to figure out how far apart to put the bunks on my dad’s boat lift for his new boat.
Posts: 12112 | Location: SWFL | Registered: October 10, 2007
I studied that stuff when a slide rule was the only thing resembling a calculator. That by itself was a learning experience. One important skill that taught me was how to determine where the decimal point goes. Even today with all that computing power, that seems to be an underappreciated subject as a few bridges have collapsed and rockets gone off course do to errors in that department.
Originally posted by Oscars father:”. I didn’t believe I’d need any of the math I was exposed to High School. Until I wanted to figure out how many bags of mulch I needed for the landscape circle around a tree…
I am no dope, and was competent with geometry (which is all logic to me) and algebra. But calculus never made one damn bit of sense to me. I tried, but I stalled at calculus.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
Posts: 53440 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004
I have 2 engineering degrees (never worked in either one) and managed the math necessary OK. However, I don't remember much of the calculus and would be hard pressed to work with it. My abilities in algebra, geometry, and trigonometry are still pretty good, though. I sometimes use the binomial theorem and "(a+b)(a-b)=a²-b²" to get answers.
After some time, my son surpassed my mathematical skills when he entered Trig., let alone Calculus. Fortunately, he has a good friend who loves math and is very gifted with it, to help him.
Originally posted by jhe888: I am no dope, and was competent with geometry (which is all logic to me) and algebra. But calculus never made one damn bit of sense to me. I tried, but I stalled at calculus.
Me too. Even tutored others in Geometry. Trig was fun. Loved Finite math (Venn diagrams, etc.) as well. But freshman college engineering calculus just flat out frustrated me. Stalled indeed!
And oh yeah, that was the Year Texas Instruments introduced their handheld calculator to the amazement of all we "slapstick" carrying freshman. Still have a number of slide rules. None have seen any use in decades. As an aside the K&E Deci-Lon was required for freshman engineering courses.
And FWIW I bailed on engineering and went with labor law (Industrial-Labor Relations). Lol
Certifiable member of the gun toting, septuagenarian, bucket list workin', crazed retiree, bald is beautiful club! USN (RET), COTEP #192
Posts: 16625 | Location: Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: June 20, 2010
Originally posted by chbibc: Ima little suspicious of that Islamic math, Al-Gebra
You'll be fine.
All they did was copy it from those guys in Asia.
Kinda like skipping school and getting a copy of the teachers notes.
FWIW, Plane wave solutions doesn't involve any airplanes.
Posts: 9590 | Location: Somewhere looking for ammo that nobody has at a place I haven't been to for a pistol I couldn't live without... | Registered: December 02, 2014
I might have had better luck in college calculus if the prof had explained that the derivative was the slope of the curve and the integral was the area under the curve. As the class was taught, it was just a bunch of algebra that made no sense to me. Oh well, we all muddle along somehow…
Posts: 7231 | Location: Lost, but making time. | Registered: February 23, 2011
In high school I took a class we referred to as "Basic block counting".
(or "How to fulfill your minimum math requirement without actually learning anything")
I was taught zero "Higher math", they didn't bother trying. lol I barely passed the classes they did give me. It wasn't till I was in my mid 30's that I figured out I had a little dyslexia and a LOT of dyscalculia. It would have been nice if somebody had picked up on the somewhere along the line. In elementary school at one point I was sent for extra help in reading. In Jr.High I was sent for extra help in math. So the signs were there, they just missed it. Oh well. (I did become an avid reader, but numbers, I still screw them up every day.)
Honestly at this point I can't even remember how to do long division. Literally, it's been too long.
My granddaughter is about to receive a degree in actuarial science.
Until this thread, I had never heard of an actuary. Thanks for teaching me something today.
Congratulations to her. Quite the accomplishment, and a great career ahead for her.
quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey: I'd fly to Turks and Caicos with live ammo falling out of my pockets before getting within spitting distance of NJ with a firearm.
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