Hark, lend a hand to a future physics major:mathematics prep

[UDP]

I'm going to be majoring in Physics.

I'd like to brush up on some math skills before hand, as I want to be well prepared, especially since I've been away from math for a while. (Treat me as though I were a freshman coming out of HS, but with a lot of time off between HS and college. That is what I am, after all)

Any serious recommendations or suggestions would be well appreciated, especially from those of you who are in related fields/have experience.

I'm going to be spending all summer working on my math and physics preparation, regardless of whether I take summer courses or not. It is currently unlikely - the summer courses - but even then I'm willing to listen to suggestions. As far as my skill level, I want to start from the bottom, and make sure I learn things completely through, so I will humbly say that my math skills mediocre.

Thanks.

[Mariano Rajoy]

take a physics/math course from a community college. they are cheap, and from my experience the quality was surprisingly good. the instructor i had knew his shit in and out, and there were only 5 people in the class. one on one instruction day after day. the structure of going everyday helps as well.

[pesto]

You could try asking the school. When I was accepted to the university they sent us a load of homework in maths to do over summer.

[tcaudilllg]

I wish you luck. I hope we can work together to bring new technologies and understanding to life someday.

Your biggest problem will be Einstein's work... it's a step ahead of everything else out there. (aside from string theory...)

There is a branch of physics called phemenology. Material physics is another "simpler" physics study, too. I'm just saying, don't get in over your head. :\ Physics these days isn't easy for INTJs.... Still, the basics shouldn't be a problem. The classical stuff is *really* easy. It's only when you start getting to relativity that things begin getting... difficult to imagine.

But relativity is graduate level work, I think. I don't think you'll have a problem.

[UDP]

You could try asking the school. When I was accepted to the university they sent us a load of homework in maths to do over summer.

I asked the PHY department chair about what I should do, and he said I should make sure my math is ready, and he mentioned being able to do the physics problems. Perhaps I will ask them for some homework over the summer (good idea)....

I'm looking into a community thing or online courses, but I don't know how..... doable it is. Thereare a lot of variables that, of course, I don't need to go into here.

But that was a good idea - the homework thing, I didn't think about that at all. I'm sure asking for it would probably sound like I'm at least interested in being successful. I have to take Calc I and Analytical Physics I together, so I'm prepring for that. Mostly for the math, because I'm probably not up to par when it comes to calculus. If I had to rate myself, it would be very low.

I think that, whatever the case, I'm going to by a sort of introduction to calculs text over the summer and makeit my bible or something. Or if I could find a book that was specifically geared towards the math involved in physics. Or maybe two books for physics and mant/calcl. Idon' tknow.

[tcaudilllg]

I will say this: get a good book. Try to take a course that offers a READABLE book. I have a precalc book and a calc book. The Precalc book is practical and useful to me, but the calculus book tends to... well, make statements about the "beauty of mathematics".... You should avoid books that tend to talk about such things, if you can.

It's a problem that advanced mathematical abstraction has been tied so closely to physics. INTJs are having a very difficult time keeping up, which is a problem because we're the best at linking models to observed phenomena. (even if we aren't the best at explaining *how* the model is linked) It wouldn't be so difficult if there were an accepted "form-based" view of the equations... but then you have guys like wym123 who feel they need to stand in the way of such innovations.

[Gilly]

Get the Princeton Review books for the high school APs. They teach the short, concise version of calculus. I use them because, well, you try learning calculus from an ENFp :wink:

[pesto]

The first physics courses I took at the uni mainly involved second degree differential equations and geometrical functions. The natural logarithm, converting from exponents of e to geometrical form and understanding the principles of mathematicals proofs are what I would recomend having a look at.

[UDP]

it's too bad wym123 decided to leave the forum. I liked his posts. I've asked him a few things about it, and he gave good advice.

Hmm, princton review for calc... I'll get on it.


and tcaulding - yeah, I think I know what you mean.
.......
back to your original post, though

I wish you luck. I hope we can work together to bring new technologies and understanding to life someday.

what does this mean- are you in physics?

[FDG]

An easy calculus book, that you can print:

http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/textbooks...strangtext.htm


It's from the MIT online courseware. It has been quite usueful to me, especially the exercise part. However, there aren't advanced concepts.

A good site for maths-physics books (P.S. Many of them are of an advanced level):

http://us.geocities.com/alex_stef/mylist.html

[UDP]

mad props

[tcaudilllg]

it's too bad wym123 decided to leave the forum. I liked his posts. I've asked him a few things about it, and he gave good advice.

Hmm, princton review for calc... I'll get on it.


and tcaulding - yeah, I think I know what you mean.
.......
back to your original post, though

I wish you luck. I hope we can work together to bring new technologies and understanding to life someday.

what does this mean- are you in physics?

Not really. I'm more into psychology. But, I'm into psychology for a definite ends. I want to work with other people to create new technologies and opportunities.

By defining the nature of the psyche I will define the nature of the universe, because the psyche *is* the universe, or at least the state of all relations between its particles at any given moment.

[UDP]

Yeah, I see it that way too, mostly.

I'm currently very much against the "division" of things, which is very intriguing because of how I can use my mind, or how the mind is used.

maybe we;ll talk more about that at some point

[Fermi]

ha ha!

Between london and USA there is a 66 km long doublelined railroad. at 20.43 a train departs from USA and arrives to London at 21.25. In the opposite direction a train from London departs at 21.01 with arrival time at USA at 21.45. when and where does the train meet when they are holding a constant speed the whole road. !!!


Determine the number p so that the ekvationssytem

( y=p^2x+p
<
(y=(15-2p)x+3

has no solution.


some geometry

in the paralell trapeze (hehe) ABCD the paralell sides AB is 8 cm and CD 4 cm. The angle B is straight. The trapezes diagonal intersect eachother under straight angle. Determine the area of the paralell trapeze

A man whent in in a garden through seven gates and took there a number of apples. When he left the garden he gave the first gate keeper half of the number of the apples he had taken and an additional apple. To the other guard he gave half of his remaining apples and an additional apple. He made the same way to the remaining 5 guards gater and left the garden with one apple. How many apples did he take in the garden?


aww thanks man.. When writing those down I got my motivation back for math! woohoo

Dunno if you asked for this.. I thought someone would find it amusing to solve these, because it is in math, funny to solve some math tasks.. mmm I got this warm gooey feeling in my stomach. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAR IMNOTGAY

[Fermi]

how many can by just looking at them know the solution?