

Ask HN: What actually goes into learning math? I don't know where to start. - rfnslyr

Grade 11 - Pre-calculus is where I last left off. All I remember where tons of graphs of parabolas going every which way and we had to identify them I think by -x&#x2F;0, xx&#x2F;+x or something, I legit have no idea.<p>I want to learn math, but whenever I googled I always had different answers.<p>Is there a Math road map? Like I&#x27;m having trouble understanding even the possible directions, let alone their existence.<p>I don&#x27;t know where to start. I&#x27;m looking at open courseware on MIT and even the first undergraduate courses are far over my head.<p>Any help?
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tokenrove
Start with Khan Academy, work from the beginning until the
calculus/precalculus sections. (it won't take long for you to blaze through
the really early math and get to the point where you're reviewing highschool
stuff) Then you'll be at a point to do early calculus and linear algebra
courses online.

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rfnslyr
Thanks. Khan looks good.

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itsapuppeh
I recently went through the stats courses... it was a great refresher from
college.

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pneumo
My experience is more with applied math (for physics and engineering), which
is kind of another world from what mathematicians do. I'm not sure which you
would prefer, but if it's the former I recommend checking out the table of
contents from Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering by Riley,
Hobson and Bence(can be viewed on amazon). It has a nice listing of all the
topics, mostly in the order you'd want to study them (with a few exceptions).
Doubt I'd recommend it as a first book in those subjects for an 11th grader,
but it should give you an idea of what's out there.

[http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physics-
Engineeri...](http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physics-Engineering-
Comprehensive/dp/0521679710) (click to look inside -> table of contents)

The "other world" that I'm much less well read in more involves proofs and
foundations, and would probably start with Euclidean Geometry and Set Theory,
then topics like Abstract Algebra, Topology, Advanced Calculus, Real and
Complex Analysis, Category Theory, and so on.

I'd also recommend j2kun's blog, which I've found great for a first intro to
many topics, though it has a bit of a programming focus:
[http://jeremykun.com/](http://jeremykun.com/) As mentioned above, Khan
Academy, Coursera, Udacity, EdX and the others are good too, especially since
they're free, so you don't have a lot to lose if you get in over your head.

Not sure if this will help, but it can't hurt.

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user_235711
There is plenty of math that does not lie on the academic beaten path (i.e.
arithmetic -> algebra -> calculus --> etc.) I would recommend trying to figure
out what area of math you are most interested in first, that way you will be
enthusiastic about learning it. Once you have the mathematical momentum from
that you will probably be able to learn whatever math you need to. A couple of
books that helped me to find a direction were _Mathematical Ideas_ [1] and
_Concepts of Modern Mathematics_ [2], which cover many different areas with
just enough depth to give you a feel for each. If you are wanting to learn
math solely for CS I would also recommend something like _Schaum 's Outline of
Discrete Mathematics_[3].

[1][http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Ideas-Edition-Charles-
Mil...](http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Ideas-Edition-Charles-
Miller/dp/0321693817/)

[2][http://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Modern-Mathematics-Dover-
Book...](http://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Modern-Mathematics-Dover-
Books/dp/0486284247/)

[3][http://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Outline-Discrete-
Mathematics-R...](http://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Outline-Discrete-Mathematics-
Revised-ebook/dp/B009SVX6NK/)

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auganov
I suggest equipping yourself with some mathematical computation software.
Mathematica is my favorite. There are some free, opensource alternatives like
ipython which seems to be pretty popular lately. It helps to grasp things much
more quickly by simply playing around with stuff. And you also get to write
some code as a bonus. Say when I was learning economics I'd simply code all
the concepts and charts in Mathematica and then play around with different
input values to see what happens. mathworld.wolfram.com is a great resource
for understanding mathematical concepts, very short, fairly formal
descriptions with references. Helps to expose yourself to mathematical
language even if you're confused at first. Wikipedia articles tend to be too
long and all over the place.

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VLM
Sounds like a startup opportunity. Like Kumon, but online and free. Or does it
have to be free?

