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Shameless self-promotion, but I write about math in an intuitive way here: http://betterexplained.com http://betterexplained.com I think the key is realizing t
by kalid 18y ago
Shameless self-promotion, but I write about math in an intuitive way here: http://betterexplained.com http://betterexplained.com
I think the key is realizing that math is about manipulating a mental model of an idea. The wrong model can make certain tasks impossible -- for example, thinking that numbers must be 1-dimensional makes complex numbers a paradox. But when you see that they could represent items in 2 dimensions, you see how complex numbers represent a rotation. And from that, numbers can have arbitrary dimensions (vectors), and so on.
Whenever I study a new concept, I try to find the mental model behind it. For a book recommendation, I'm going through Visual Complex Analysis (http://www.usfca.edu/vca/ http://www.usfca.edu/vca/) and find it extremely well written, with an intuitive approach.
- drhowarddrfine 18y agoAnd betterexplained is one of the best sites on the web, too.
- harpastum 18y agoI had never heard of this site before. All of these articles look really interesting! There goes my weekend.
- kalid 18y agoThanks -- ironically, I was planning on spending this weekend writing some more :)
- kaens 18y agoI have pointed many of my friends at your site; it's a wonderful resource. Thanks for taking the time to make betterexplained - the world is a better place with it existing.
- kalid 18y agoThanks for the kind words! It really means a lot knowing it's coming in useful.
- mizhi 18y agoThis site is awesome. It helped me unscrew my understanding of complex numbers.
- kalid 18y agoThanks :). Complex numbers befuddled me for a long time too.