[jon.kiparsky]

baavgai, on 13 July 2012 - 12:48 PM, said:

natural philosophy == science Just saying.

Newton was a true Renaissance man; he did everything.

And Pythagoras' philosophy largely == math. Just saying. yourself.
(I think we can agree that the bit about the beans wasn't math)

[larsumms]

Each person learns differently. School is designed to teach a certain way. Don't beat yourself up because the School way wasn't your way.

I don't think you are the kind of guy who can just read a book and learn it on your own. Sounds like books aren't your media.

Get a tutor - put out a request for a tutor on jobs websites. You might even find someone who will do it for free.

You tried to remember the acronym, but you didn't get it. It is SOH CAH TOA. This is what the witch doctor told the person who stubbed his toe. Remember that it is 3 words, not one long word. Remember that each word is 3 letters. 3 words, 3 letters.

Sine = Opposite/Hypotenuse Cosine = Adjactent/Hypotenuse Tangent = Opposite/Adjacent

The fact that you couldn't remember it exactly shows my point. Your brain doesn't think in text. Text is not the way you learn.

Try to find a website with dynamic graphs so that you can move a slider in the human interface, and the graph being displayed changes, showing you what Sine, Cosine and Tangent means VISUALLY

And remember, Albert Einstein was horrible at math. It's the truth

[fromTheSprawl]

larsumms, on 17 July 2012 - 01:19 AM, said:

I don't think you are the kind of guy who can just read a book and learn it on your own. Sounds like books aren't your media.

Um, I think it's the other way around. I learn more with text.

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You tried to remember the acronym, but you didn't get it. It is SOH CAH TOA. This is what the witch doctor told the person who stubbed his toe. Remember that it is 3 words, not one long word. Remember that each word is 3 letters. 3 words, 3 letters.

You know, I was actually thinking if it was what you posted, but I just posted mine, never Googled for it. Thanks for reminding.

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The fact that you couldn't remember it exactly shows my point. Your brain doesn't think in text. Text is not the way you learn.

But this contradict the facts that I didn't learn Trig from my teacher, and he relied mostly on the board and drew lots of shapes. I guess I didn't absorb anything on college because I was defeatist, and on high school, because I thought to myself, where would I use this? Both, my bad.

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And remember, Albert Einstein was horrible at math. It's the truth

Thanks for the kind words!

By the way, I guess you're new here, welcome to DIC!

[macosxnerd101]

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And remember, Albert Einstein was horrible at math. It's the truth

Wait- what? Substantiate that claim. Einstein needed lots of math to do the Physics he did. Have you heard of Fourier series? You get those in 4000-level math classes, and they are used in higher-level physics. Same goes for advanced differential equations and analysis classes.

[jon.kiparsky]

Two true statements: Einstein did terribly at math in his school years, and he generally expected his co-writers to make the math work out.

One false statement: Einstein was terrible at math.

Einstein had an intuitive grasp of the math that few people can even imagine. He was brilliant at math, in that he was able to see mathematical relations that still baffle people a century later, given a century's worth of explanations and subsidiary proofs and confirmations. What he was terrible at was converting his intuitions into concrete proofs.

His co-writers had to have been brilliant as well, since they had to take these completely non-obvious leaps of genius and establish that they were in fact sound reasoning, done at warp speed, and presumably fill in enough details to that ordinary brilliant minds could agree that they were sound.
And they didn't even have the concept of warp speed to work with - the fastest motion Einstein could expect to experience was a slow train through Europe, I'm guessing about 30 MPH. And from this he gave us "light speed".

[lordofduct]

jon.kiparsky, on 16 July 2012 - 09:58 PM, said:

Two true statements: Einstein did terribly at math in his school years, and he generally expected his co-writers to make the math work out.

One false statement: Einstein was terrible at math.

Correction:

1 true statement: Einstein generally expected his co-writers to make the math work out. (his wife was a mathematician and was one such co-writer)

2 false statements: Einstein was terrible at math and did terribly in his school years.



he actually excelled in school at both math and science.

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Legend has it that Einstein was a poor student who flunked out of school, but this was not the case. He excelled at math and science, though he often got only mediocre grades in other classes. When Albert was 15, his family moved to Milan, Italy. Albert had only one year left in high school, so he stayed behind.

from: http://www.amnh.org/.../aeinstein.html


Any google of 'einstein highschool grades' will lead to tons of science academics debunking this long held legend. Many believe the legend arose out of Einstein's own derision for his own math skills.

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 17 July 2012 - 08:11 AM

[Skydiver]

Off to a tangent: Some people have those talents where they just have an intuitive grasp of certain things or concepts but can't work the mechanical parts of it. Sometimes, though, there will be some key thing that unlocks the block and then they also figure out the mechanics of it.

My ex-wife had an amazing sense of direction, but couldn't read a map to save her life. While we were dating, I and a various friends tried various things and techniques over the years to teach her, but no success at all. What changed it all was getting her hooked on the Sid Meier's Civilization. Somehow the game provided enough interactivity (and incentive) to teach her how to correlate locations of places to a graphical presentation. After that game addiction, maps never bothered her again.

[DarenR]

jon.kiparsky, on 16 July 2012 - 10:58 PM, said:

Two true statements: Einstein did terribly at math in his school years, and he generally expected his co-writers to make the math work out.

One false statement: Einstein was terrible at math.

close but actuall he excelled in math and physics but sucked at all other subjects

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. He failed to reach the required standard in several subjects, but obtained exceptional grades in physics and mathematics.[20] On the advice of the Principal of the Polytechnic, he attended the Aargau Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland, in 1895-96 to complete his secondary schooling.

~wiki

[jon.kiparsky]

DarenR, on 17 July 2012 - 12:07 PM, said:

jon.kiparsky, on 16 July 2012 - 10:58 PM, said:

Two true statements: Einstein did terribly at math in his school years, and he generally expected his co-writers to make the math work out.

One false statement: Einstein was terrible at math.

close but actuall he excelled in math and physics but sucked at all other subjects

Well, that'll teach me to believe received wisdom assembled from the mass of "stuff everyone knows".

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Quote

. He failed to reach the required standard in several subjects, but obtained exceptional grades in physics and mathematics.[20] On the advice of the Principal of the Polytechnic, he attended the Aargau Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland, in 1895-96 to complete his secondary schooling.

~wiki

Wiki? Hey... waitaminnit...

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 17 July 2012 - 10:17 AM

[lordofduct]

My reference was the American Museum of Natural History... better than wikipedia?

[jon.kiparsky]

Yeah, that's why I mocked Daren and not you.

[lordofduct]

Now that's the kind of attention I need! heh.

[jon.kiparsky]

I can mock you too if it'll help. Just let me know.

[lordofduct]

I need at least 1 dose of jon.kiparsky mocking a day... it's the bitter that makes the sweetness of the day's events taste that much better!

[jon.kiparsky]

So, what, I'm the espresso in your mocha?