4 ms·

I find learning mathematical concepts from Wikipedia very difficult

devrand 8y ago
Have you tried simple Wikipedia? I find it way easier to conceptualization the topics there and then move onto the main Wikipedia to get more detail, as needed.
RugnirViking 8y ago
I also agree, and would further that any relatively technically involved concept tends to contain the most complicated form of that topic, for example the wikipedia page on lift goes into some pretty intense detail. This is the natural result for a website written by users (those with lots of knowledge write it for others who have lots of knowledge). Even simple wikipedia is not immune to this, due to explaining the concept theoretically instead of taking example problems. I do not mean to say that I think wikipedia is bad or that others do better. I'm not even sure such a problem is solvable at all (making it useful for both beginners and experts)
- herewulf 8y ago
  On the other hand, articles written by experts with full detail is much more useful to those already well versed in a given field. To use myself as an example: I would look elsewhere for computing or linguistics information if the articles were all written for beginners.
  - RugnirViking 8y ago
    I don't disagree with you - the articles are not at all useless in topics for which I am well versed. Like I say, the issue that is perhaps unsolvable is some intuative way to have the article useful to everyone at once while not bogging them down in useless info
fokinsean 8y ago
You should check out simple wikipedia, there's not a page for everything but there's quite a bit. Here's an example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(mathematics) https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(mathematics)
- mkhalil 8y ago
  I never knew Simple English wikipedia was even a thing. Thank you! Will definitely be passing it on to my immigrant parents.
exDM69 8y ago
It's not the best resource for learning but Wikipedia is an excellent reference for a lot of topics in mathematics. Some topics have excellent coverage, others are barely touched so ymmv.

Have you tried simple Wikipedia? I find it way easier to conceptualization the topics there and then move onto the main Wikipedia to get more detail, as needed.

RugnirViking 8y ago

I also agree, and would further that any relatively technically involved concept tends to contain the most complicated form of that topic, for example the wikipedia page on lift goes into some pretty intense detail. This is the natural result for a website written by users (those with lots of knowledge write it for others who have lots of knowledge). Even simple wikipedia is not immune to this, due to explaining the concept theoretically instead of taking example problems. I do not mean to say that I think wikipedia is bad or that others do better. I'm not even sure such a problem is solvable at all (making it useful for both beginners and experts)

herewulf 8y ago
On the other hand, articles written by experts with full detail is much more useful to those already well versed in a given field. To use myself as an example: I would look elsewhere for computing or linguistics information if the articles were all written for beginners.
- RugnirViking 8y ago
  I don't disagree with you - the articles are not at all useless in topics for which I am well versed. Like I say, the issue that is perhaps unsolvable is some intuative way to have the article useful to everyone at once while not bogging them down in useless info

fokinsean 8y ago

You should check out simple wikipedia, there's not a page for everything but there's quite a bit. Here's an example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(mathematics) https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(mathematics)

mkhalil 8y ago
I never knew Simple English wikipedia was even a thing. Thank you! Will definitely be passing it on to my immigrant parents.

exDM69 8y ago

It's not the best resource for learning but Wikipedia is an excellent reference for a lot of topics in mathematics. Some topics have excellent coverage, others are barely touched so ymmv.