Reply to: Anyone watching Horizon?

[Churchill]

I have just started reading The Princeton Companion to Mathematic. It's a huge tome, but gives you an overview of much of modern day mathematics, also with history and biographies of prominent Mathematicians. Edited by Fields Medalist Timothy Gower.

Just ordered it from Amazon. Thanks.

When I first started work in simulation I did a crash course in Engineering Mathematics. I really must get round to formalising my knowledge. Unfortunately time and finances prevent that at the moment.

[Cliphead]

Oh and for anyone who has read this thread, is intrigued and doesn't have a maths background but would like to give what we are talking about a go -read this

My degree was mostly maths and physics with some astronomy thrown in, enjoyed every aspect of it even although I had to work hard at it.

Diff calc I use every day just for fun and no desire to take maths any further unless it has some use for fun or job. My choice not lack of inteligence or motivation.

[proggy]

I have just started reading The Princeton Companion to Mathematic. It's a huge tome, but gives you an overview of much of modern day mathematics, also with history and biographies of prominent Mathematicians. Edited by Fields Medalist Timothy Gower.

[sasguru]

Oh and for anyone who has read this thread, is intrigued and doesn't have a maths background but would like to give what we are talking about a go -read this

[amcdonald]

I wonder if Psychohistory is becoming a reality and who will be the real-life Hari Seldon?

Why Sheldon of course, though expect things to go pear shaped if no one sings him "Soft Kitty"

[OwlHoot]

I think you're making the classic thicko mistake. What you don't understand is not necessarily boring.
HTH

Unless it's the rules of baseball

(or football, rugby, cricket, ...)

[sasguru]

was a gentle dig, you were starting to sound like an insufferable bore, I don't think "AssGuru Male Gigolo" could stand the competition.

I think you're making the classic thicko mistake. What you don't understand is not necessarily boring.
HTH

[vetran]

I thought the title "General" meant threads not related to contracting, not "A place where no serious discussion is allowed"?

was a gentle dig, you were starting to sound like an insufferable bore, I don't think "AssGuru Male Gigolo" could stand the competition.

[sasguru]

My son is considering it as a career. It's possible he's even smarter than my real-life persona (as opposed to the thick git I portray here). I might be smart enough for it, but I'm definitely far too lazy. He did Spivak when he was 16. I waited until 2nd year university. It's not really something that's difficult. The topology he's studying now seems rather more challenging.

Lots of people "do" Spivak. Very few complete all the problems. Sorry I am a perfectionist and sometimes for me the perfect is the enemy of the excellent.

[proggy]

With Math it's good to have a good grasp of both Pure and Applied. Would you prefer a brain surgeon who could talk for hours on the structure of the brain, but hadn't operated or someone with decades of operations but no idea on the theory, or one with both.

[NotAllThere]

Explaining Big Data tonight.

Fascinating. I wish I was smart enough to be a Quant...

My son is considering it as a career. It's possible he's even smarter than my real-life persona (as opposed to the thick git I portray here). I might be smart enough for it, but I'm definitely far too lazy. He did Spivak when he was 16. I waited until 2nd year university. It's not really something that's difficult. The topology he's studying now seems rather more challenging.

[sasguru]

True, but Sas seemed to be making a big deal of the contrast between "calculus" (limiting tangents etc, as taught at A level) and "analysis" (starting with epsilon-delta, as introduced at the beginning of an undergrad maths course). .

That'll be because there's a big contrast
FFS I didn't have you down as a blowhard.

[doodab]

To get to that point you have to make sure you've really "comprehended" by solving the exercises in a "hard" analysis text first.
I'd settle for that. I haven't solved all in Spivak, but when I do a hard one, it's a high.

Maybe it's easier if you have a maths degree. My first degree was engineering, when I look at one of my engineering maths books after say, Spivak, they look like a piece of piss. It's all relative I suppose.

Maybe it depends how you start. I covered Turing's halting problem proof, Godel and Cohen's independence of the continuum hypothesis proofs as part of my course, as well as the usual group theory, analysis and so on. So I did quite a lot of axiomatic prooving, but not so much in the way of application or solving of ODEs, PDEs and so on.

[OwlHoot]

Epsilon-delta was quite early in 'Analysis 1' in the 2nd year.

TBH most of what has already been proved is comprehensible once you reach a certain ability to grasp abstract concepts and you have the necessary background and know what the jargon means. Applying some abstract maths to some little understood aspect of reality, or having the insight required to postulate and prove something as yet unproven, is a different ball game.

True, but Sas seemed to be making a big deal of the contrast between "calculus" (limiting tangents etc, as taught at A level) and "analysis" (starting with epsilon-delta, as introduced at the beginning of an undergrad maths course). But obviously there are loads of other aspects of modern analysis, such as measure theory and functional analysis.

[sasguru]

TBH most of what has already been proved is comprehensible once you reach a certain ability to grasp abstract concepts and you have the necessary background and know what the jargon means. Applying some abstract maths to some little understood aspect of reality, or having the insight required to postulate and prove something as yet unproven, is a different ball game.

To get to that point you have to make sure you've really "comprehended" by solving the exercises in a "hard" analysis text first.
I'd settle for that. I haven't solved all in Spivak, but when I do a hard one, it's a high.

Maybe it's easier if you have a maths degree. My first degree was engineering, when I look at one of my engineering maths books after say, Spivak, they look like a piece of piss. It's all relative I suppose.