Re:Study HN: Linear Algebra 1, fortnight 2
by tptacek on Monday October 17, 2011 @01:50PM
(#3121557)
So as a data point:
I found 1.2 remarkably painful. Here's why: my math sucks, and I didn't have basic algebra internalized (I flunked algebra in high school and so while I can reason my way through a system of equations, I couldn't do it instantly).
On top of that, I was way overthinking the problems. The sense I got of the 1.2 problems is that they're largely refresher stuff; that is, when given a system of 2 equations in 2 variables, they just want you to go ahead and solve it, not graph it in row and column view.
I grabbed an algebra cheat sheet and breezed through it once I realized that.
1.3 went much faster for me; it was clear what the "new" material was, and Gaussian elimination is straightforward. This was material I really just wanted to go ahead and code up in Ruby (I wound up using a spreadsheet instead).
Incidentally, I've found spreadsheets extremely useful for these early exercises.
I'm hoping to be done with 1.4 tomorrow night.
By far the biggest issue I'm having is finding time to spend on this, so I'm really only a couple (literally) hours into this so far.
I found 1.2 remarkably painful. Here's why: my math sucks, and I didn't have basic algebra internalized (I flunked algebra in high school and so while I can reason my way through a system of equations, I couldn't do it instantly).
On top of that, I was way overthinking the problems. The sense I got of the 1.2 problems is that they're largely refresher stuff; that is, when given a system of 2 equations in 2 variables, they just want you to go ahead and solve it, not graph it in row and column view.
I grabbed an algebra cheat sheet and breezed through it once I realized that.
1.3 went much faster for me; it was clear what the "new" material was, and Gaussian elimination is straightforward. This was material I really just wanted to go ahead and code up in Ruby (I wound up using a spreadsheet instead).
Incidentally, I've found spreadsheets extremely useful for these early exercises.
I'm hoping to be done with 1.4 tomorrow night.
By far the biggest issue I'm having is finding time to spend on this, so I'm really only a couple (literally) hours into this so far.