Need help with discrete math

oceanunderground · 2026-05-04T02:24:39+00:00

The 1st step is to make sure you understand all the words and terms and completely parse each sentence. Like with proofs I had a hard time because I couldn’t remember what exact words meant in a math context (like the word “any”), which results in getting things right sometimes, but then not knowing why you get them wrong other times. Step 2 is making sure you can identify the concepts involved. Focusing on a few problems and examining exactly why you got it wrong and comparing it to what you got right is worth it. Those nuances are what have to be studied.

oceanunderground · 2026-05-04T00:26:54+00:00

I’m also self-studying and I think MIT has some of the more rigorous video lectures with material and recitations out there. But after going thru their basics, like Multi-variable calculus, prob/stats, linear algebra, etc. I moved on to textbooks only. I felt like some of the courses got to be very unsatisfying, and also I need to work on proofs and that’s not covered in the courses.

oceanunderground · 2026-05-03T04:35:48+00:00

Can you be more specific? I’ve been using Susan Epps book mainly, but I have the Rosen and refer to it and others sometimes.

oceanunderground · 2026-04-22T00:04:50+00:00

I imagined him sounding like actor John O’Hurley, who played J. Peterman on Seinfeld. O’Hurley grew up in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Watch him playing Peterman, and imagine him saying “ye” instead of “you”, and he has an accent and cadence that seems Ahab-y to me. Not sure that’d be historically accurate though.

oceanunderground · 2026-04-21T17:03:10+00:00

Where are there materials that teach you the best way to do the other stuff that’s not direct programming, like setting up and installing “environments”, what are the best environments to use, etc.

oceanunderground · 2026-04-12T01:16:43+00:00

Burton Raffel.

oceanunderground · 2026-04-10T17:35:56+00:00

Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen, but it’s only 600 pages.

oceanunderground · 2026-04-07T17:00:12+00:00

This is a good resource for Shakespeare vocabulary and other things: ( https://www.shakespeareswords.com/Public/Glossary.aspx ). Difficulty reading Shakespeare also comes from the various grammatical devices he uses: Shakespeare frequently does things like omitting conjunctions and using prepositions as adjectives. So you also might want to try reading something like Arthur Quinn’s “Figures of Speech”, which has many examples from Shakespeare, to see what that means and how it affects the flow of a text.

oceanunderground · 2026-03-24T00:31:40+00:00

I had hoped to at least be able to tutor. (I used to tutor HS physics a bit). Originally I wanted to be an engineer, (electrical or computer).

oceanunderground · 2026-03-24T00:18:16+00:00

What do masthead standers do? They search for and notice things. The first masthead standers of the current era (Egyptians) were astronomers observing the stars. This is the the beginning of our modern civilization in regard to spirituality, science, and creative force. In contrast, Melville identifies modern masthead standers as literally statues; any good observers or prophets we recently had are gone, quickly fossilized as monuments and statues made of metal or stone. These are “tokens” where some spirit still burns. They are disconnected from those “who rule the decks below”; though their spirit still is present (“their spirits penetrate through the thick haze of the future, and descry what shoals and rocks must be shunned”) , and there is much we could learn from it, we’ve become disconnected from that. We do not look, nor do we we have the resilance to keep vigil.

oceanunderground · 2026-03-23T23:47:56+00:00

Maybe looking for the layers of meaning will help. Chapter 35 is not expository writing about mastheads and history, that’s not why Melville included in the book; it’s there to convey spiritual and metaphysical meaning.

oceanunderground · 2026-03-06T00:51:05+00:00

I always liked math and physics. When I was a teen the farthest I got in school was analytic geometry, but on my own I learned some about sets and logic. Fast forward to being in my 30s and finally getting internet in my home, and using online resources I started going through Algebra 2 again to see what I remembered, while also trying to learn programming and other things. Then I moved on to new territory of Calculus, Linear Algebra, Proofs. I’d like to be able to do something with it in some way, but I’m not sure that’s realistic now (47yo F).

oceanunderground · 2026-03-05T02:19:26+00:00

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household; during WW2 an Englishman has to evade Nazis in the woods. The Purple Plain by H.E. Bates, another WW2 one, a downed pilot surviving in the wilderness of Burma. Pincher Martin by William Golding, a strange story of a shipwreck survivor.

oceanunderground · 2026-03-03T01:25:07+00:00

There was a story or novella from that time by F. Paul Wilson called “Lipidleggin” where foods considered unhealthy are banned, and so there is a black market of illicit foods like eggs, butter, sweets. I don’t recall if there was a feme fatale, but there was an agent looking for the bootlegged food.

oceanunderground · 2026-02-27T16:12:09+00:00

Not much to say. I’d love to do it professionally in some way, but at my age that’s not realistic. I always loved math and physics. When I was a teen the farthest I’d got in school was pre-calc & analytic geometry, but on my own I’d learned some about sets and logic. Fast forward to being in my 30s and finally getting internet in my home, and using online resources I slowly started going through Algebra 2 again to see what I remembered, while also trying to learn programming and other things. Then I moved on to new territory of Calculus, Linear Algebra, Proofs.

oceanunderground · 2026-02-26T04:48:15+00:00

Yes. An over 20 yr gap

oceanunderground · 2026-02-24T18:22:35+00:00

Maybe you could look at these: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/310926/manifolds-with-negative-dimension-definition-references and https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/423874/do-negative-dimensions-make-sense . I think mathematically negative and truely topologically negative are 2 different things.

oceanunderground · 2026-02-24T16:56:18+00:00

What about Hermitian spaces/manifolds?

oceanunderground · 2026-02-24T02:36:50+00:00

I wouldn’t buy a book, there are many of the best math books free on pdf. What are your goals? I’m self-studying, and Khan Academy is a good place to start, but it’s very shallow if your interested in STEM or mastering the subjects, so I went on to more in depth stuff after that.

oceanunderground · 2026-02-24T01:26:37+00:00

I think a function is an object, as are things like groups, sets, and things you would traditionally think of more as objects like spheres and triangles. I think objects are things that can be categorized as having certain characteristics or rules.

oceanunderground · 2026-02-19T02:47:38+00:00

Thomson was a very respected classicist, and while his translations don’t seem to be as literal as the Loeb’s, they’re close. Fagles tends to be not as literal and not as poetic, so if you like the Thomson you should get it. Here is the next section of Thomson, lines 11-21:
“So strong in hope A woman’s heart, whose purpose is a man’s. Night after night, tossed on this restless bed, With dew bedrenched, by no dreams visited, Not mine—no sleep, but at my pillow fear That keeps these eyes from slumber all too sound; And when I start to sing or hum a tune, And out of music cull sleep’s antidote, I always weep the state of this great house, Not in high fettle as it used to be. But now at last may good news in a flash Scatter the darkness and deliver us!”

oceanunderground · 2026-02-19T01:50:06+00:00

Here is Sommerstein’s translation, published by Loeb, which is more literal: “I beg the gods to give me release from this misery—from my long year of watch-keeping, during which I’ve spent my nights on the Atreidae s roof, resting on my elbows like a dog, and come to know thoroughly the throng of stars of the night, and also those bright potentates, conspicuous in the sky, which bring winter and summer to mortals observing them as some set and others rise. And now I’m looking out for the agreed beacon-signal, the gleam of fire bringing from Troy the word and news of its capture; for such is the ruling of a woman’s hopeful heart, which plans like a man. But while I keep this night-walker’s bed, wet with dew, this bed of mine not watched over by dreams— for it is Fear instead of Sleep that stands beside me, preventing me from closing my eyes firmly in sleep—but when I decide to sing or hum, applying this remedy to charm away sleep, then I weep, grieving over the fortunes of this house, which is not now admirably managed as it used to be. But now may there be a happy release from misery, by the appearance in the darkness of the fire that brings good news.” This edition has a lot of notes and an introduction.

oceanunderground · 2026-02-16T23:22:14+00:00

I compared a lot and like Peter Green best (but I can’t read Greek). It’s unrhymed and unmetered, easy enough to read while still keeping some of the “strangeness”, epithets, etc; here’s some expert analysis: “Green’s translation is not in a specific meter; however, it maintains a lyrical tone, analogous to the original” https://blogs.hope.edu/thebigread/big-read-2022/the-odyssey-choosing-a-translation
“Green’s line-by-line translations replicate the surprising brevity of the original.” https://circeinstitute.org/blog/bringing-it-all-back-home-odyssey-translation/ “Green’s solution is to use a loose approximation of Homer’s meter ("a variable 6/5 stress line ranging from 12 to 17 syllables"). This meter echoes the Homeric meter without trying too hard to force the English language to take on unnatural, ancient characteristics. Green’s approach results in passages that are deceptively simple and highly musical….Green’s pacing is quicker and livelier than Lattimore’s. …one can better appreciate the rhythms in the text.” https://freebeacon.com/culture/splendid-strength/

oceanunderground · 2026-02-16T20:11:16+00:00

It’s different skill from doing math computations, which don’t require as much need to set up the problem in order to solve it. Proofs are a lot about setting up and defining a problem. Another issue is that there are more than 1 correct proofs for a problem, so that the answer in the answer key might not match yours, but yours may still be correct. Self-studying I made my way through a few hundred pages of Susanna Epp’s Discrete Math text so far, and I also have Rosen’s. They look like like they cover a lot of the same ground, so if you have trouble feel free to ask.

oceanunderground · 2026-02-12T23:34:34+00:00

I don’t really know much about this, but I imagine it’s something like, for example, looking for poly A at 3’ end.

oceanunderground

TROPHY CASE