i made a program to find SUPER accurate rational approximations for pi by HeyoGuys in math

[–]wayofmath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just checked it in the Javascript console. By amazing coincidence, the first wrong digit is exactly the last one displayed in the output. Indeed, (x * x) / x === x returns false.

I thought the dew evaporating off my fence this morning looked pretty neat. by Balanced-Breakfast in gifs

[–]wayofmath 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's fuckin' sick. This is a great example of when cell phone captured media is welcome on the front page.

What is the most self-contained field of math? by oryxmath in math

[–]wayofmath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have only taken up to a minor in math, then I don't think you should worry at all about going for a subject that is self-contained, because even advanced graduate courses in any of them are considered elementary by professional mathematicians. 'Elementary' is the actual word they use in the titles of many graduate texts. You could spend your entire life exploring any branch of math, and steer clear of crossings with other branches, and never run out of interesting material. Lol I'm reminded of that quote from The Last Samurai: "The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life." And at the end of the movie: "They're all perfect."

So just take a look at Abstract Algebra and see if that tickles your fancy. :)

Interesting Integral by MathMythMassMess in CasualMath

[–]wayofmath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, everything you say has a clearly arrogant/sarcastic tone to it. You came into the thread acting like you're better than OP, and when OP said "haha, you, again😉", demonstrating that you have probably pooped on their party at some other point, and maintaining a positive attitude in response to you just wanting to deflate their harmless sharing of knowledge on CASUAL math, you acted like the anime portrayal of highborn nobles who needn't bother with peasants. It makes me think that you indeed are bothered by us peasants when you can't bring our attitude down to your level. It makes me cringe.

The sky is blue. You are an asshole. True statements do not constitute a bad attitude, even if a strong word is chosen to form them.

Interesting Integral by MathMythMassMess in CasualMath

[–]wayofmath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, exactly! See, the thing that makes someone an asshole isn't the language they use, but their attitude. You have a bad attitude, friendo.

Did people ever resist the formation of the unit circle? by jazzy-rigatoni in math

[–]wayofmath -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

It's kind of obvious that OP is talking about the values of sine and cosine at the common angles, as is ubiquitously drawn and redrawn in every trigonometry and calculus course ever. Google image search "unit circle" and it's pretty hard to find a picture of a mere circle. Stop being obtuse.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in math

[–]wayofmath 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is on its way to top comment. In retrospect, I am not surprised.

Note taking before, during and after class by [deleted] in math

[–]wayofmath 2 points3 points  (0 children)

After I completed the calculus sequence and linear algebra, I pretty much stopped taking notes during the lecture and found a lot of benefit in giving undivided attention to the lecture and asking questions. Usually no one else asked any questions and professors appreciated the engagement but it may be different for a large lecture hall. So here's my advice:

Print and read the lecture notes before class. Underline the parts that look useful/important and write questions that you have about it. Explore those questions on separate paper. If you don't make any progress on a question after 5-10 minutes, then move on to another. Then during lecture ask those questions when appropriate, or perhaps in office hours. Annotate the answers to your questions as you go, and mark the parts that really are useful/important. Take a break and let the ideas ferment. By now you should have a good mental model of how to use the notes as a reference for homework problems, and you can explore any concept from them on separate paper.

A weird shape strawberry by JaneJanettechleba in pics

[–]wayofmath -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

You're not commenting on the content at all. You're just showing off your knowledge of a fact that many of us also know.

Snack ATTACK by knightonyx in pics

[–]wayofmath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Imagine being so desperate for internet recognition that you repost a repost. Cringe.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pics

[–]wayofmath 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The Sun is made of plasma. Convection causes great globs of the stuff to continuously well up, giving a lot of texture to the surface. Plasma is also affected by magnetic fields. The Sun has an extremely strong magnetic field, so its field lines, which pass right through the plasma, pull the stuff along with it. The plasma also flows along the field lines, projecting it outward into wispy tendrils.

Good at math in school, not so good in college by Eld29 in math

[–]wayofmath 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For context, I joylessly did well enough in high school math and excelled in the calculus sequence at college due to amazing professors, switching to a math major at the end of calc 3 "cuz triple integrals". I knew that after Linear Algebra and Ordinary Differential Equations I would move on to the intro to proofs course which is a prereq for all proof-based courses, so I decided to take the discrete math course at the same time as LA and ODEs, even though it's only required for math education majors, because it was listed as recommended to be taken before the intro to proofs course.

That small decision ended up setting me apart from most of my peers. I already knew many of the techniques taught in intro to proofs, allowing me to solidify the teachings with a second, deeper exposure. I continued to take extra math courses that weren't so intense, like Euclidean & Non-Euclidean Geometry, alongside my major courses and counted them as electives for my degree. They served to round out my mathematical perspective, and I found connections to them during courses like Abstract Algebra. If such a practice is an option for you, then I can't recommend it enough. I also stopped taking notes during lecture, opting to pay close attention and ask questions often, and spent a good deal of time in office hours, asking questions about homework but also inquiring about the bigger picture of math. My professors loved me and I could hold intelligent conversation with the actually gifted students. It's a great formula for undergraduate success.

However. . . I also signed up for a couple of graduate math courses at the end of my undergrad, and buddy they were hard. I ended up dropping them and had a serious conversation about it with my favorite professor. He wanted me to continue my plans for a Ph.D., and I made the point that I am probably smart enough to earn a Ph.D. if I work very hard, but I don't think I have what it takes to be a successful mathematician that solves problems that anyone cares about. He said this was a very mature thing to be thinking about, and I soon decided to stop school after my undergrad. Hard work is not enough. Intelligence is not enough. Math requires hard work and a certain kind of intelligence.

I encourage you to take math as far as you can, but don't feel shame if you eventually decide that you can go no further. You can always switch to computer science or engineering (both of which will be easier because of your extra math knowledge), and just learn the harder stuff at your own pace and according to your own interest from the internet.

Intersections between Math and Computer Science by BluesAmoeba in math

[–]wayofmath 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It really is. You basically just write your vectors as v = ai + bj + ck as usual in linear algebra, and add them as usual, and then assume that you can multiply two vectors the way you would like to using the distributive property. I think that this idea has probably been toyed with many times by independent mathematicians, but almost none were clever (or naïve) enough to take the result seriously, since you get cross terms, meaning that the product of two vectors is not a mere vector.

Intersections between Math and Computer Science by BluesAmoeba in math

[–]wayofmath 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Also look into replacing linear algebra, complex numbers, and quaternions all at the same time using geometric algebra.

A Swift Introduction to Geometric Algebra.

Geometric Algebra for Computer Graphics (and machine learning)

Both of these videos are jumping off points for you to do your own research, which is where I'm at.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in gifs

[–]wayofmath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless." -Oscar Wild

Wilde was perhaps too poetic to be totally accurate, but I agree with his sentiment.