Ask HN: How to Learn Math | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to Learn Math

5 pointstheshire7 comments

I've taken up to Calculus 1 in college but that was a few years ago and haven't touched math since I still remember things but not as good as it was when I was taking classes a while back.

I want to learn and understand math everything from Fractions, ratios to Algebra being able to make sense of the world and understand math the big picture. I wanna know how to use variables to solve for unknowns in word problems any word problem understand the concept of math.

How would you go about this? books, videos or websites much appreciated.

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Found [1]this while browsing /r/learnmath, it might be of some help.

1. https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/micromass-insights-on-...

How much math have you had in school? What classes have you taken? Are you still in school, and if so, what is your major?

thanks I edited my story.

Start with a refresher on calculus -- MIT's "Big Picture Calculus" video series is designed precisely for this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13634476

To develop your visual intuition, watch 3Blue1Brown's YouTube channel (he also has an "Elements of Calculus" series coming soon): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw

Try to find the geometrical underpinning for each topic you learn. This will not only help you visualize what you're learning, but it will also help keep a red thread going as you traverse from topic to topic.

After calc, I would study Linear Algebra next since it's at the heart of numerical computing today, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13620871 (note the comments, they also include many good pointers and references, e.g. here's a list of video's that help you visualize https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13623711).

The Numberphile channel is always good to keep your mind thinking in numbers: https://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile

Also, you can go through my HN stories profile -- there are a ton of math-related links and discussions in there, such as this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13631213

Explore math topics on WikiPedia, YouTube and online lectures from MIT/Stanford/Caltech/Berkeley etc.

Group theory comes up often: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_theory

Set theory is at the root of everything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(mathematics)

Pay close attention to the concept of intervals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(mathematics)

Practice reading journal articles until you can start to understand the notation (this may take a while but persevere, the continual exposure will start building fluency).

Practice implementing the concepts you're learning in Python.

Ask questions on MathOverflow http://mathoverflow.net. Quora is also good: https://www.quora.com/

Get and read SICP and do the material for the online MIT SICP course (it's the all-time classic CS course, with a math bent): https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...

...the SICP videos are on YouTube too https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB63C06FAF154F047

Explore and have fun!

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