[geeks] Math books

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Fri, May 17, 2002 at 07:24:54PM -0500, Bill Bradford wrote:
> Okay.  I finished Algebra 3 in college, but never went on to calc or any
> of that stuff.  
> 
> I've got Wolfram's book on the way (which looks AWESOME).  Any other
> suggestions?    Amazon URLs appreciated. 8-)
> 
> basically, I've never done any higher-level math (other than what I did and
> forgot in college), and would like to learn more.

First, I find mathworld.wolfram.com to be a usefull reference, but sometimes
it doesn't go into enough depth (ie, Monte Carlo methods) or else it isn't
entirely clear (the discussion of determinants shows it returning a 
matrix, and I know darn well that determinants are to be a single scalar).

But, that's pretty advanced stuff.  At a minimum you need some solid Calc.
Calculus The Easy Way is a good way to get started.  The basic concepts of
Calc are easy enough. 

After that I'm not in a good place to make recommendations for text books.
Swokowski's Calculus: Sixth Edition got me through Calc 1-3, but I don't 
know if it is really the best.  After Calc 1, things get pretty hairy, but
towards the end of Calc 2, you start getting into things that are actually
extremely usefull for computer people.  The end of Calc 2 is where some of
the tools use in numerical analysis are introduced.

Calc 3 relates to calc in space.  I don't often use the stuff learned in that
class.

Numerical analysis is great for programmers.  Linear algebra is simple mind
blowing. 

If you have the spare time, find a local school, find who is teaching the
class covering the material you want, and ask the professor if you can audit
it.  That might be a lot easier than trying to learn solely through texts.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd