I want to teach myself Calc III

[kevinthenerd]

Any suggestions on the best book to use? Any free places on the Internet to go?

I might also need a good review of Calc II on the way.

 

[Spoooon]

You could probably just get and use a textbook. I taught myself Cal II over a summer one time to make the fall easier.

 

[jlarsson]

Skipped class a few times?

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: jlarsson
Skipped class a few times?

never had Calc III. I had Calc II as an AP test, but I only got a 4 on it. I want to fully master Calc I and II so I can move on to III and stuff even higher

 

[kevinthenerd]

This is gonna sound crazy, but I just want to get moving through math just to be able to understand somewhat Goldbach's Conjecture, Goldbach's Odd Conjecture, The Poincare Conjecture, The P vs. NP Problem, The Riemann Hypothesis, the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture, the Hodge Conjecture, the Navier-Stokes Equasions, and the Yang-Mills Theory.

As it is, I've spent almost no effort at all learning what math I already know. (I slept every day through AP Calculus BC, and I taught myself series, etc. IN THE CAR RIDE ON THE WAY TO THE TEST.) I figure that with some real discipline and effort, I might be able to do something special with my abilities for mankind.

I'm either delusional or courageous. If, hypothetically speaking, I'm smarter than Riemann, I'd never know it because of the way the American education system works. You either meet a standard, are below it, or you're above it. If you're above it, little effort is made (even in private schools) to extract original genius and potential. I will now create my own challenge and attempt to mend the disservice done to me.

 

[rocadelpunk]

spoken by a true lazy smart person.

 

[TechBoyJK]

(if google=I want to teach myself Calc III)
loop > index=yay from=1 to=infinity <
output #index# < loop

(else) <hey dude search google>

 

[Spoooon]

Do you have any reason to suspect that you may be smarter than Riemann?

edit: I'm just joking with kevinthenerd. Not saying that he's stupid for thinking he's smarter than Riemann or anything like that.

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: Spoooon
Do you have any reason to suspect that you may be smarter than Riemann?

He aced a high school calculus class with little effort. He MUST be a freakin' genius.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg

Originally posted by: Spoooon
Do you have any reason to suspect that you may be smarter than Riemann?

He aced a high school calculus class with little effort. He MUST be a freakin' genius.

Although highschool calculus isn't hard in hind sight, you have to remember that I didn't have the luxury of being taught anything. I was the only student in Calc BC in my highschool at the time, and I just sat goofing off in the AB class. I didn't learn ANY BC topics until I crammed for the test.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: Heisenberg

Originally posted by: Spoooon
Do you have any reason to suspect that you may be smarter than Riemann?

He aced a high school calculus class with little effort. He MUST be a freakin' genius.

Although highschool calculus isn't hard in hind sight, you have to remember that I didn't have the luxury of being taught anything. I was the only student in Calc BC in my highschool at the time, and I just sat goofing off in the AB class. I didn't learn ANY BC topics until I crammed for the test.

la de freakin' da... how about taking the math courses that your college offers before you start making valuable contributions to mankind or whatever?

 

[cressida]

don't really need cal II for cal III (I haven't taken it for a while so I could be wrong) but if you are doing engineering, I would suggest to learn cal II fully.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: Synergy
don't really need cal II for cal III (I haven't taken it for a while so I could be wrong) but if you are doing engineering, I would suggest to learn cal II fully.

i dunno how you are gonna do multiple intergrals when you can't even do single intergration


anyway im not sure about those conjectures you named but it sounds like you are gonna need more than just calc 3 for those.

 

[miniMUNCH]

Not to burst your bubble...but I took the AB class in HS, didn't study for any of the BC crap and still got a 5 on the Calculus BC test ten years ago when the AP tests were actually hard...they are really easy now.

Guess what? I'm not a genius...not by a long shot. Basic Calculus is hard in the high school sense of the word...but very easy in light of the broad spectrum of mathematics...I can tell you that from a little experience.

<-- studying for a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering, lots of math -- mostly applied but some analysis, abstract algebra, and discrete math too.

If you get to your graduate Math Analysis course at top notch Math school (princeton, cal tech, etc.) and understand the text in one read through and can solve your proofs homework in a sitting, then you might be a genius.

But you don't have to be a certifiable genius to make contributions...read "Fermat's Enigma", the professor @ princeton who finally proved Fermat's last theorem took over 7 years to do it (the proof is like 175 pages long or something and uses just about every major field of mathematical theory to do it...). Self admittedly, the guy is not a 'genius', but he is very smart and worked incredibly hard with great devotion to create a work of "pure genius".

 

[Bulldog13]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
This is gonna sound crazy, but I just want to get moving through math just to be able to understand somewhat Goldbach's Conjecture, Goldbach's Odd Conjecture, The Poincare Conjecture, The P vs. NP Problem, The Riemann Hypothesis, the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture, the Hodge Conjecture, the Navier-Stokes Equasions, and the Yang-Mills Theory.

As it is, I've spent almost no effort at all learning what math I already know. (I slept every day through AP Calculus BC, and I taught myself series, etc. IN THE CAR RIDE ON THE WAY TO THE TEST.) I figure that with some real discipline and effort, I might be able to do something special with my abilities for mankind.

I'm either delusional or courageous. If, hypothetically speaking, I'm smarter than Riemann, I'd never know it because of the way the American education system works. You either meet a standard, are below it, or you're above it. If you're above it, little effort is made (even in private schools) to extract original genius and potential. I will now create my own challenge and attempt to mend the disservice done to me.

What type of medal would you like me to make you?

 

[daveymark]

nice to finally meet a fellow goldbricker. My excuse is ADD though. I get enough sleep, but I just don't pay attention in class at all(too busy tracing the pattern on the ceiling with my eyes). So I'm always forced to cram a half hour before the class and I aced the test anyway. I really should start taking ritalin.

 

[cressida]

Originally posted by: dighn

Originally posted by: Synergy
don't really need cal II for cal III (I haven't taken it for a while so I could be wrong) but if you are doing engineering, I would suggest to learn cal II fully.

i dunno how you are gonna do multiple intergrals when you can't even do single intergration


anyway im not sure about those conjectures you named but it sounds like you are gonna need more than just calc 3 for those.

yeah forgot about those.

 

[miniMUNCH]

Originally posted by: Synergy

Originally posted by: dighn

Originally posted by: Synergy
don't really need cal II for cal III (I haven't taken it for a while so I could be wrong) but if you are doing engineering, I would suggest to learn cal II fully.

i dunno how you are gonna do multiple intergrals when you can't even do single intergration


anyway im not sure about those conjectures you named but it sounds like you are gonna need more than just calc 3 for those.

yeah forgot about those.

The bitchiest part of multiple integrals are the test questions where they ask you to interchange the limits of integration (i.e. switch dx dy dz --> dy dz dx or something)...those questions are deceptively difficult...while the idea is simple...is it so easy to a make a mistake.

 

[fyleow]

PHD in Chemical Engineering? I was thinking of majoring in Chem E...what kind of jobs do you do with that degree? I've always seemed to have a "natural affinity" for Chemistry (It was just a Chemistry Honors class in high school but still). I grasped the concepts relatively easily and I was good at it, but then again it could be deceptive because it's just entry level chem stuff. I might just end up being horrible with the harder concepts...

I did enjoy the class though, so that might be worth something. I'm just worried that it combines the worst of both worlds, the pure memorization hell that comes with life sciences (organic chem) and the complex mathematics that is typical of engineering fields of study.

 

[TechnoKid]

Alot of people at my school take calc 4 and then calc 3. This is for a mechanical engineering program, however.

 

[miniMUNCH]

I know this is agruable...but ChemE is probably the hardest engineering/science major on the whole (mind you I'm not saying ChemE has the smartest students, that not true at all) although elements of other majors may be more difficult...if you can't code then your fscked in CS, Math has some really hardcore esoteric stuff, and so forth...

I took chemE because I really enjoyed Chem, Physics, and math in HS and chemE is great combo of the three. The breadth of jobs and spectrum of industries you can work in with a ChemE degree are huge. Any company that sells a product probably employs ChemE's...almost all engineering/technology companies hire ChemE's.

The big ChemE industries are chemical, petrochemical (oil&gas, refineries, etc.), pharmaceutical and biotechnology, and environmental. I worked in the biotech industry for a couple years then decided to go back to grad school.

Whatever technical or business interest you take in college...plan on getting the highest degree you possibly can (that means you need to get good grades: like 3.5+ if at all possible). Most good colleges pay their engineering and science graduate students. My full tutition is paid and I get like $2,000 a month to live off of for the 4-5 years in total that I'll be here. And grad school is a lot more fun than undergrad studies...way less stress on the whole (way better than working for some boss who won't let you do anything fun).

 

[josphII]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: Heisenberg

Originally posted by: Spoooon
Do you have any reason to suspect that you may be smarter than Riemann?

He aced a high school calculus class with little effort. He MUST be a freakin' genius.

Although highschool calculus isn't hard in hind sight, you have to remember that I didn't have the luxury of being taught anything. I was the only student in Calc BC in my highschool at the time, and I just sat goofing off in the AB class. I didn't learn ANY BC topics until I crammed for the test.

i did exactly the same thing... as a junior even. the ap calc tests are a complete joke, as is the ap physics exam

but anyways, if i remember correctly there are only three major topics/concepts in calc II - integrals, convergence/divergence, and taylor series. the only thing you need for calc III is the stuff on integrals and you might have even learned that stuff in calc I. calc III is mostly just an extension of calc I

 

[fyleow]

Math is not my favorite subject but I really enjoy physics and chemistry. I can't do theoretical math and "useless" math as I like to call it. However, if I'm doing applied math involving either physics or chemistry I can do it no problem. I don't know why, my brain just works better when it's something real rather than imaginary.

I loved just about everything in Chemistry but like I said that was just the basics. I guess I'll take some chemistry courses in college to see if I still like it and go from there. I'm such a computer geek that I seemed destined to be a programmer, and while I'm okay at it I prefer to do something more hands on. I loved doing all the labs in Chemistry so that's why I'm considering it.

Right now I'm planning on doing either business or engineering (chem/electric/comp), hopefully at UCLA or Carnegie Mellon. I do plan on getting at least a masters too.

 

[opticalmace]

Originally posted by: miniMUNCH
Not to burst your bubble...but I took the AB class in HS, didn't study for any of the BC crap and still got a 5 on the Calculus BC test ten years ago when the AP tests were actually hard...they are really easy now.

Guess what? I'm not a genius...not by a long shot. Basic Calculus is hard in the high school sense of the word...but very easy in light of the broad spectrum of mathematics...I can tell you that from a little experience.

<-- studying for a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering, lots of math -- mostly applied but some analysis, abstract algebra, and discrete math too.

If you get to your graduate Math Analysis course at top notch Math school (princeton, cal tech, etc.) and understand the text in one read through and can solve your proofs homework in a sitting, then you might be a genius.

But you don't have to be a certifiable genius to make contributions...read "Fermat's Enigma", the professor @ princeton who finally proved Fermat's last theorem took over 7 years to do it (the proof is like 175 pages long or something and uses just about every major field of mathematical theory to do it...). Self admittedly, the guy is not a 'genius', but he is very smart and worked incredibly hard with great devotion to create a work of "pure genius".

Thanks for saying everything I'd like to, without lying.

 

[miniMUNCH]

If you end up going to Carnegie-Mellon you'll have to look me up sometime.

Between UCLA and CMU...CMU is probably better for just about eveything but UCLA is cheaper. But your education is what you make it, nevermind the reputation of the school...I went to a Cal St. school for undergrad because it is dirt cheap and I had to pay my own way.