I'm looking for some recommendations for books on mathematics.
My mathematical abilities have always been sub-par and I managed to get through my education using nothing but memorization and regurgitation wherever math was involved.
I really slipped through the cracks when I was in school, so I'm looking to improve my abilities and knowledge on the subject.
I'm mostly interested in learning the logic and thought processes for solving problems, along with some of the general philosophy behind it, ideally the book would have practice questions that get progressively more difficult as well.
General scientific/mathematical literature thread I guess.
Ask >>>/sci/
>>7696486
/sci/ might be better to ask for practical stuff. I asked a similar question there once and they (to my surprise) told me to do "messy" self-education, with lots of repetition and overlap, e.g. just tearing through every single pre-university level math book I can find even if it's partly redundant, as opposed to any one Canonical Set of Math Texts. Hard to explain, but the sentiment they seemed to convey, and which has always stuck with me, was that the lion's share of math ability (aside from innate genius or something) is in building up your own personal heuristics and intuitive comfort, again rather than some linear and progressive set of rules to be learned.
For logic, not so sure. Maybe check the Stanford Encyclopaedia Article(s) on math for some basic outlines? I do know that understanding the history of math is often considered vital, since it's less a gigantic morass of rules and more a developmental process you can more easily compartmentalise.
t. dilettante
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_It
&
http://www.amazon.com/How-Prove-It-Structured-Approach/dp/0521675995
And look at the standard curriculum (order) of math subjects at university.
Oh, and some people like that Khan academy website for entry stuff. It's probably effective.
t. physics PhD
betterexplained.com
The Logic Manual - Volker Halbach
Written by a Professor of Logic at Oxford, assigned reading to undergrads.
Learn Calculus, it is really interesting and imo beautiful
Try Spivak. Read if you need some precalc books or other calc books
Also learning some basic linear algebra can't hurt
>>7696486
It mostly about learning the symbols and then doing the goddamn homework. If you just know some symbols you are still never going to get through to understanding how proofs work and that is one crucial part of understanding what is the beauty of mathematics.
Try to go through the basics of most pre- or college mathematics level textbooks and after that, if you still are determined to learn more, pick a subject and get a textbook on it.
If you like the philosophy of mathematics check out Russel, Hegel, Boole, Wittgenstein, Carroll, etc for some writings and maybe some university materials to get some basic understanding.
If you are babby tier in math, use the khan academy platform.
Hey Op, I didnt pay attention in math through school and when I got to college I realized how lacking I was in many areas. I got into math books and tore through them along with my course work over a semester.
Vedic Mathematics by Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaja
Power Of Vedic Maths with Trigonometry by Atul Gupta
Vedic Mahematics by Dhaval Bathia
Gave me a new outlook on the subject and helped me get my math in gear. Now I teach the kids and my nieces and nephews.
Begin with Bourbaki
>I managed to get through my education using nothing but memorization and regurgitation wherever math was involved.
This means you have to go back to pre-algebra, algebra, and pre-calculus and do it right this time. Forget about Logic; assume that you can't even add.
If you can't demonstrate why 3/4 x 5/7 is 15/28 on a number line, you don't even understand something as basic as multiplication of fractions. And no, the explanation of that shouldn't be "you just multiply the numerators and denominators!".
Also, if you can't figure out the cardinality of A ∩ B, when A = {2, 9, 16, 23, ..., 912} and B = {8, 13, 18, 23, ... 1063}, you'll never even make it to Calculus, let alone proof-based mathematics.
And if you haven't figured it out already Khan Academy is a waste of time (you need to master and cultivate the pen-and-paper approach until you feel comfortable solving non-trivial problems); your best bet is a good set of textbooks aimed at the pre-algebra, algebra, and pre-calculus level.
>>7696699
What is cardinality tho
Start here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10449811-the-maths-handbook
>>7696714
The amount of elements a set has.
>>7696486
You need to actually learn the basics. A house needs a solid foundation, otherwise it collapse.
Serge Lang has book appropriately called "Basic Mathematics". It may you from nothing, straight to a level of preparedness needed for college algebra and calculus. It includes many practice questions, and the materiel itself is done with rigour enough that you will be able to transition into proof-based courses, which are the heart of intermediate and advanced mathematics, and needed to properly understand modern math.
>>7696731
26?
christ that took me a while, what's the shortest way to do this
>>7696486
Start with the euclids
I haven't been able to pay attention to math since the eight grade when we had a female music teacher dabbling in the subject.
The only decent teachers in Canada are french, so its always a good idea to think about transferring.
>>7696906
Since the members of A have a common difference of 7 and 5 for B, the LCM of the two is 35; since 23 is the smallest element that A and B have in common, we note that A ∩ B has the form of 35k + 23. In other words, you're looking at the set: {23, 25, 93, ..., n}. Now we just need to find the largest k ∈ N satisfying the inequality:
(1) 35k + 23 ≤ 912
Computing (1) gets us k = 26 + 1/35. Since 26 + 1/35 is not integral and so ∉ N, the largest value it can achieve is 26. But since we started with k = 0, we've got 26 + 1 = 27 elements in total. Thus, |A ∩ B| = 27.
>>7696486
I recommend Euclid's Elements. I started reading it when I was 14 and it helped me a ton
>>7696486
Is there something wrong with me that all my life I had a struggle learning math? Every time I want to I try but then I always forget everything about what I have studied. I feel really stupid, probably I am.
>>7697026
Nigga its 26
23 +35*25=898
>>7697520
Ok, you're right after all. I had 35(26) = 910 yet I forgot to add the 23 to the product.
Yeah, so it's 26.
eight ćhan /prog/. look at the sticky there
If you want to get better at mathematics instead of learning more mathematics but still being too weak to solve anything but basic problems, you should use this. >>7696518 has the same idea.
If you want to just be a plodder who can apply crank-the-handle techniques then go for >>7696551
>>7696544
this guy sort of correct >>7696699 that you need to have fluent, intuitive understanding of arithmetic and algebra, but you get that from solving interesting problems rather than buying a new book that goes through things formally or states field axioms.
>>7696486
Ask yourself honestly do you understand maths or not, if you do not then no book in the world is gonna help you.
