Hacker News Reader

Comment by muraiki | Hacker News Reader

I'm very much lacking in math education and this seems like it would be a great approach for learning linear algebra. Do you know how this compares with "Coding the Matrix: Linear Algebra through Applications to Computer Science"? The two approaches sound very similar.

View on HN

I signed up for "Coding the Matrix" and didn't finish. Before that, the last math I had studied was Calc 1 during my freshman year of college, over a decade ago. My impression was that it seemed like a good class and a good professor, but it moved quite quickly and was hard to follow for people lacking a background in higher math. I did get very comfortable with writing comprehensions in Python, though.

I still want to learn Linear Algebra, myself, so if anyone has suggestions, please post them.

Thank you for this feedback. You have most likely saved me a lot of angst. :)

You could buy the book, which isn't that expensive and covers everything from the video's as far as I can tell.

That allows you to study it more at your own pace. I'm taking the Visualizing Algebra course from Udacity, after working halfway through Coding the Matrix, because I found my algebra skills to be lacking.

Too bad its no longer possible to get a certificate on Coursera though, now I have to wait until the next iteration.

Hit archive.org or whatever for "Strang Linear Algebra" and you'll see the MIT OCW videos for free. The quality is, um, very turn of the century, but you're watching to learn, not critique video codecs.

If you want to spend money, from my bookshelves:

Strang (the guy in the videos above) knows one or two things about Linear Algebra. His textbook is legendary. Bring lots of $$$, like three figures.

"The Manga guide to Linear Algebra" Yes, that is exactly what it sounds like. I think if you have to start somewhere, maybe this is it. Cheap. $

"Matrices for Engineers" by Kraus. There's about 50 textbooks along the lines of linear algebra matrices for engineers programmers using $math_application or $calculator or $chicken_entrails and similar title permutations. You'd think every engineering program in the nation is required to use a different text. This particular text was pretty good. If I recall correctly, reasonably priced $$.

I would suggest reading them in the order of the comic book, the engineer book (or any of the dozens of equivalent college texts), and Strang. Coincidentally thats also order of price.

At one time I understood everything in the comic book and the engineer book. That was a long time ago. Strang mystified me in parts. So I'm not going to pretend to have THE perfect answer. It is entirely likely in the last decade someone has written the Uber text to replace them all. Probably a new edition of Strang is out by now.

I would estimate the effort required to be about one programming language.

Best of luck to you.

IMHO the uber text for intro LA is Axler's.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com