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Conquering my fear of math

Name: Anonymous 2009-11-22 2:43


Good evening /sci/.  I posted a thread on /g/ seeking recommendations of good sites to visit for general math practice in varying levels, from Arithmetic to Pre-Calc.  I found math.com, and this seems good, but if you guys know of anything better, please direct me to it.  If you guys also know of any sites that could teach me more advanced stuff like Calculus, that would be very much appreciated. 

I was told to also look into purchasing books.  Are there any that you would recommend?

Name: Anonymous 2009-11-22 3:40

I really don't have a good idea what books are best for introductory mathematics.  I would guess that Sheldon Axler's precalculus book is good, as his linear algebra book was phenomenal, but I can't say for sure.  If you've gotten the basics down though (through pre-calc or so), I found that analysis was the subject that really made me want to study math further.  Bartle and Sherbert's analysis text is (in my opinion) a great place to start learning "advanced" math.
Calculus is often used as a buzzword for upper-level math, but in reality introductory calculus is elementary and extremely mechanical.  As a result I found it pretty boring, and I personally think that calculus would be better taught through analysis (some people consider analysis to be "advanced calculus").  The text I recommended is self-contained though, so if you have precalc down you can make an attempt to read that and move back to an introductory calc book if you're struggling too much.
If you ever get the basics of analysis down there are a ton of great books I know of that you could tackle, but that seems like a ways off.  As a further note, when you get past very basic mathematics such as calculus, math tends to be more about proving things than about making calculations.

Name: Anonymous 2009-11-22 13:21


Math was always one of my weakest subjects, but I've had a recent interest in actually trying to be good at it.  This is mainly due to my new interest in logic.  I will look for your recommendations.  Thank you.

Name: Anonymous 2009-11-22 14:28

>>3
My favorite logic book is by Christopher Leary.  It's out of print now but worth looking into.  You'll need to read the appendix in the back first if you're not already familiar with naive set theory.

Name: Anonymous 2009-11-23 0:55

I'd also like to be recommended a good book on elementary mathematics, because my high school education was pretty shitty in that department, and I probably still have a few gaps. At my school (like most?) the content was presented in the form of rules to memorize, and mechanical calculations to perform, without any motivation given for things like trigonometric functions.

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