Need crash course in Linear Algebra

[KnickNut3]

Today, 1 day after drop/add ended for the semester, spanning and linear independence and bases and a bunch of things I've never studied came up in my math class, which the teacher happened to forget to put in the assumed/prerequisite knowledge given on the first day. She suggested I consult my notes for an earlier course (which I haven't taken--I'm on 1 semester exchange) or buy a $120 textbook. Obviously, I'm not doing that sh!t.

So, I'm looking at Mathworld and was wondering of other resources from which to get a crash course in Linear Algebra. Thanks.

 

[Amplifier]

Linear Algebra doesn't touch sht from Calculus until later on if that's what's worrying you. It's a pure practice/repeat course. The text should explain everything for you.

 

[JoeKing]

talk to a school tutor. EVERY uni has a tutoring program.

 

[chuckywang]

Here


EDIT: Sorry, I should have added in my post that .gz files are handled by GSView and Ghostscript. Just d/l and install both of those.

 

[KnickNut3]

Originally posted by: Amplifier
Linear Algebra doesn't touch sht from Calculus until later on if that's what's worrying you. It's a pure practice/repeat course. The text should explain everything for you.

?? This is an upper-level math course.

As for the tutor, I don't really want one. I'd rather just get some concise stuff that I can read for a couple hours to catch me up.

What do I do with that gz file? WinRAR it? Winzip just opens an "add files" dialog. Sorry if I'm being dense here...

 

[eLiu]

MIT OpenCourseWare

It has video lectures, quizzes w/answers, homeworks w/answers, Java demos, and more.

Entry level linalg isn't that difficult. If you can, check out the MIT stuff & borrow a book from a friend...read up and you'll be good to go. If you can find it, the book for the MIT course (by Gilbert Strang) is VERY good. Lots of geometric arguments/diagrams in addition to the typical "mathy" stuff in your average textbook. He covers a wide range of topics; it's a great introductory book.

I basically picked up the course on the fly; I took a class in HS but it was retarded..."practice/repeat" like Amplifier said--not doing the subject any justisce whatsoever. Once you get deeper into the material (into higher order algebras OR computational linalg) then it gets more hairy. But what you're mentioning isn't too complicated...read up and you'll be good. Feel free to PM me if you want some extra help.

edit: while you're there, if you want to see any other intro level material, the intro classes on OCW are documented really well. As you get into more advanced topics, then stuff can get a bit sketchy, but the early courses have tons of stuff for you to play with.

edit2: drop/add is already over? geez how long have you been in school? For us add date is like a month-ish into the semester, and drop date is like...I dunno maybe a little less than 2/3 of the way through.

 

[KnickNut3]

Thanks, eLiu. I forgot about that site.

They also have that linear algebra book by Strang. Unfortunately both copies are out, but I have them on reserve. Hopefully this site and mathworld can hold me over until then.

Thanks a lot. Maybe when I get back to my home university I can take Linear Algebra as a full course now that I'm learning it on my own, hah.

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: KnickNut3
Thanks, eLiu. I forgot about that site.

They also have that linear algebra book by Strang. Unfortunately both copies are out, but I have them on reserve. Hopefully this site and mathworld can hold me over until then.

Thanks a lot. Maybe when I get back to my home university I can take Linear Algebra as a full course now that I'm learning it on my own, hah.

Sure, no problem. I like OCW...I even refer to it during some of those courses b/c the stuff there is better than what some profs hand out ><

WinRAR should be able to handle a .gz file (it's a gzip file isn't it?)...but it isn't opening for me--Windows says it's corrupted or not recognized

When I first took the class at a university near my home (NC State), I thought linalg was a useless subject...but it keeps rearing it's head in stuff I do, and I'm developing an appreciation for this topic. It was really quite cool (to me at least) once I started digging deeper.

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: eLiu

Originally posted by: KnickNut3
Thanks, eLiu. I forgot about that site.

They also have that linear algebra book by Strang. Unfortunately both copies are out, but I have them on reserve. Hopefully this site and mathworld can hold me over until then.

Thanks a lot. Maybe when I get back to my home university I can take Linear Algebra as a full course now that I'm learning it on my own, hah.

Sure, no problem. I like OCW...I even refer to it during some of those courses b/c the stuff there is better than what some profs hand out ><

WinRAR should be able to handle a .gz file (it's a gzip file isn't it?)...but it isn't opening for me--Windows says it's corrupted or not recognized

When I first took the class at a university near my home (NC State), I thought linalg was a useless subject...but it keeps rearing it's head in stuff I do, and I'm developing an appreciation for this topic. It was really quite cool (to me at least) once I started digging deeper.

Sorry, I should have added in my post that .gz files are handled by GSView and Ghostscript. Just d/l and install both of those.

 

[eLiu]

Oh okay, cool. There's another reason for me to get my rear into Linux...all the useful academic files have been gz-ed and/or tar-ed.

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: eLiu
Oh okay, cool. There's another reason for me to get my rear into Linux...all the useful academic files have been gz-ed and/or tar-ed.

.gz files have nothing to do with compression. thay are more like pdfs. There are Windows packages to handle them.

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: eLiu
Oh okay, cool. There's another reason for me to get my rear into Linux...all the useful academic files have been gz-ed and/or tar-ed.

.gz files have nothing to do with compression. thay are more like pdfs. There are Windows packages to handle them.

I thought .gz files held data compressed by GNU gzip...? I guess I was wrong :/ Oops

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: eLiu

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: eLiu
Oh okay, cool. There's another reason for me to get my rear into Linux...all the useful academic files have been gz-ed and/or tar-ed.

.gz files have nothing to do with compression. thay are more like pdfs. There are Windows packages to handle them.

I thought .gz files held data compressed by GNU gzip...? I guess I was wrong :/ Oops

Hmm...I see your point. It could be the fact that the file when I got it was named incorrectly. Maybe it should have been a .gs file.

 

[miniMUNCH]

School and/or public library is your friend.

 

[KnickNut3]

Yeah, didn't know university libraries carried current textbooks.

At my home university, at least, it seems like they purposely don't carry textbooks (unless the teacher puts a copy on loan) so that more people will buy them in the bookstore.

 

[ruffilb]

Well, I have no ideas, but Good Luck and :thumbsup: to you. I did intro. Physics II w/o ever having taken math beyond Alg II, you can do this