Mathematics

[boutboulman]

Well, I'm a mathematician. I thought we could have a nice little (but let's make it big) thread all about mathematics.
- Informal discussions,
- Informal teachings of higher beauty to newbies,
- Exchange of help and answers to tough questions,
- General chit chat about a cool subject and it's history,
- Anything else related

To start off I guess I can give a bit of background about myself: I study mathematics at a fairly good university. I've turned to the pure side of things, particularly algebra (which isn't high-school algebra btw, but groups, rings, fields, modules.. anything vaguely group related basically).
Without trying to show off too much - but at least a little bit - here is a list of university courses I have done over the last couple years (in a vaguely sensible listing), ie. what I might likely be able to help anyone in:
- Groups, Geometry & Groups
- Differential Equations, Vector Calculus, Dynamics (eek)
- Numbers and Sets, Set Theory and Logic
- Analysis I, Analysis II, Complex Analysis, Topics in Analysis (don't like analysis)
- Probability
- Special Relativity
- Vectors and Matrices, Linear Algebra (boring, but important)
- Methods (for like.. solving differential equations and stuff. Fourier transforms were cool)
- Electromagnetism (but not really)
- Groups, Rings and Modules (yay), Galois Theory (very hard), Representation/Character Theory
- Graph Theory
- Number Theory
- Algebraic Topology
- Coding and Crytography

So please, distract me from what I should be doing. Also may I politely ask that this thread not get hacked by post after post of "I hate maths/ I never got maths / I really hate maths" etc, etc. Post if interested, right?

Gotta love maths. (l)

[piroteki]

MATH?! GROSS.

don't have much to contribute. my brother's taking dif eq right now, though!

-edit- ok i'm just being annoying. follow the rules and don't complain about math!

[JPML014]

At least now I can get some help. I like mathematics but since my math teachers have always been real assholes, I've always found math to be... unenjoyable. But it's their fault. Anyways, you NEED math.

[Alex]

I have Social Sciences Applied Math in school now, which is pretty much statistics and economy.

Did the test today. Was crap.

[Steam Machine]

i hate maths:P

[CuBuLo]

Math is ok, I do well in it but its not my favorite subject.

[staceylala]

The only funny things about maths was my yr 10 teacher. He was... lets say he was slow.
Thought my name was Dave (mainly because we told him that) and spent the whole year calling me dave. We also used to lock our year 11 teacher out of the class, change the clock (everyone has done that though, we still do it actually in most lessons) hide people who didn't belong in the class under our desks, hide small pieces of meat around the classroom and generally misbehave... Still passed though, we could afford to piss around, we were in top set.

[Aimforthehead]

Ooh. I'm glad you made this thread.
I have to pick my classes soon for next year in high school (I'll be an 11th grader/a junior), and need to choose between taking AP Stats or Calculus. (AHHHH!)

From what my math teacher told me, it's better to take Calculus right after Trig, since the subjects are related. I just took Trig last semester, so she recommended me for AP Calculus (once again, AHHHH!) but I dunno...is Statistics easier? There were honestly a lot of things I never quite understood in Trig, and I don't know if I could handle a class like that in my junior year.

Probably going to take Stats first and Calc later, but, I wouldn't mind getting a second opinion..maybe of someone who knows about this stuff. :P

[Alex]

I dont know what do you Stats involve, but it seems much much easier than regular maths, which involve lots of equations and geometry.

But its your choice.

[piroteki]

[quote1236723464=Aimforthehead]
Ooh. I'm glad you made this thread.
I have to pick my classes soon for next year in high school (I'll be an 11th grader/a junior), and need to choose between taking AP Stats or Calculus. (AHHHH!)

From what my math teacher told me, it's better to take Calculus right after Trig, since the subjects are related. I just took Trig last semester, so she recommended me for AP Calculus (once again, AHHHH!) but I dunno...is Statistics easier? There were honestly a lot of things I never quite understood in Trig, and I don't know if I could handle a class like that in my junior year.

Probably going to take Stats first and Calc later, but, I wouldn't mind getting a second opinion..maybe of someone who knows about this stuff. :P
[/quote1236723464]
i've never taken stats, but i'd say that i'd agree with your teacher and say go for Calculus, because if you wait until you have to take calculus in college (which i guess you might not have to do, but it's pretty likely that you'll have to take something like that) then you'll have forgotten some things from trig, which do end up showing up in calculus.

if you're intimidated about the AP part, see if your school offers a non-AP honors class or something. there are also two divisions when it comes to AP Calculus, so you can take AB and it won't be as hard as BC. at my high school, it was kind of different, and AP was kind of the standard, but i just took honors (aka "stupid calculus&quot, and that was ok. i kind of had difficulties, but that's because admittedly i didn't really pay attention in class or do a lot of my homework... :s but that was my fault for not doing what i should've and not because the subject was too hard.

i can't really speak much for stats, but i remember not being a big fan of the different probability and combinatorics or whatever it is that we did in my pre-cal class. so i wouldn't say that it's easier than calculus. it's just different. i also had to learn some stats for a biology lab once, and it was pretty confusing. t tests and chi square and all that. i didn't like it. but the way i learned is kind of different from learning it in an actual stat class, so maybe doing so would make it less confusing.

also, you may want to talk to the teacher(s?) who teach AP Cal about your concerns ask for a recommendation.