this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
928 points (97.9% liked)

Science Memes

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top 21 comments
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[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Trig is not bad at all. Couple dozen rules to memorize and you're golden.

Now Calculus... Integrals...

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The worst part of calc was honestly the rude awakening that my algebra skills needed woooork

[–] Yondoza 17 points 2 months ago

Totally agree. The general concept of calculus is pretty straightforward. The implementation of calculus is an exercise of algebra.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Calculus is intuitive and sexy. Linear algebra, on the other hand...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I love linear algebra! It's one of the coolest and most satisfying maths (for me personally)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Try playing around with GLSL shaders! They're a fun application of linear algebra and have a satisfyingly quick feedback time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I agree! That was the one class I took where it just all made sense for me.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Hard disagree. Linear algebra can make pretty shapes and colors from a bunch of vertices, while calculus can make you want to quit school and become a plumber.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Quoting a relatively famous mathematician, linear algebra is one of the few branches of math we've really truly understood. It's very, very well behaved

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've not heard that quote, who said it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

It wouldn't have been published, and he's only relatively famous if you're a topologist, but it was Charlie Frohman. Not that it must carry the same weight for you, but I value his insight highly, even if it's just a quip.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have learned linear algebra in a few different contexts now, and each one I learned made it easier. When I first learned it, it was in a pure maths context and I found it tricky. It began to make more sense in university, when I learned it in the context of x-ray crystallography. I think more so than most topics, linear algebra really needs the context of it's usefulness for it to really make sense, but also, I think I'd have struggled with the x-ray crystallography if I hadn't already got a grounding in linear algebra from a pure maths angle.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah I got zero context when I learned linear algebra and it seems everyone here that loves it is pointing to something outside the math itself for why. My brain only knows it as a bunch of nonsense matrix rules you gotta memorize.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Ok yeah that sounds awful. I was taught it by an engineer and it was great

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Number Theory can fuck right off.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Statistics truly is god's work. The petty, sadistic, contradictory god of the bible, that is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Linear algebra? What about liminal algebra

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Linear algebra was so much easier. It’s just vectors

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

I cosign this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

especially that