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Re:Mathematical trick wiki Terrence Tao blogged about is now... by aneesh on Saturday April 18, 2009 @12:10PM (#568431)
There's no substitute for a good mathematical intuition, especially as you tackle the more difficult problems. But having a standard bag of tricks up your sleeve can be very helpful. Just use them as a tool, not as a crutch.

If you're interesting in this sort of thing, I highly recommend working your way through the Art of Problem Solving texts (www.artofproblemsolving.com).

Re:Mathematical trick wiki Terrence Tao blogged about is now... by dangoldin on Saturday April 18, 2009 @12:35PM (#568466)
Another great book is "How to Solve It" by Polya (http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Aspect-Mathematical-Method/d...) as it gives a heuristic approach to solving problems.
Re:Mathematical trick wiki Terrence Tao blogged about is now... by quisxt on Sunday April 19, 2009 @12:01AM (#569089)
Most of the higher level math text books I've read present theorems and their proofs , but not much on strategies for actually solving problems (a notable exception: Wilf's Generatingfunctionology), so this seems like it should become a very nice resource.

As one would expect from a brand new site, it's rather short on content. The content that's there right now, though is pretty good.

Re:Mathematical trick wiki Terrence Tao blogged about is now... by jibiki on Saturday April 18, 2009 @01:25PM (#568510)
Seems like the kind of thing that would be more fun to write than to read...
Re:Mathematical trick wiki Terrence Tao blogged about is now... by nutmeg on Saturday April 18, 2009 @01:55PM (#568534)
It took me more than one try to parse the meaning from that title.
Re:Mathematical trick wiki Terrence Tao blogged about is now... by Rod on Saturday April 18, 2009 @03:41PM (#568657)
Just to point out a typo: it's "Terence Tao", not "Terrence Tao".
Re:Mathematical trick wiki Terrence Tao blogged about is now... by vang3lis on Saturday April 18, 2009 @06:35PM (#568830)
I can't edit that anymore, but thank you!