[Guardsman]

Hey guys, I want to go to school for engineering, Electrical or Electronics (both, if they have a program like that).

Anyhow, I have a big problem that currently prevents me from finishing even my Associates (Community College of the Air Force).....I can't do text-book algebra.

I can do applied algebra, I've been doing it since I was a kid. But, put a text book in front of me, with x=axb+c2/d, and I might as well be reading Latin.

One test study guide that I looked at had a question asking what the square root of i is. I can't even begin to understand how I get an answer to that. My line of thinking is that an imaginary number doesn't exist, therefore, it can't have a square root. Nothing = nothing.

I worked at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center until recently, and I looked over some of the papers and machine technical stuff, in how the accelerator works, beam physics, etc.

When I look at that kind of stuff, it makes sense to me....I may not know the exact answer, but if I had all of the necessary information, I could figure out the answer.

I also picked up a book, "Engineering Formulas", by two German guys, and looking through there, the formulas make sense to me.

Has anybody had this kind of problem before, or know somebody that did, or just have any suggestions that might help me out?

I love doing math, but it frustrates the crap out of me that I can't get past this. I tried taking algebra twice in high school, flunked both times, tried it again in 1998, and got a D on that.

I don't want to just pass the classes, I actually want to learn the stuff. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

John

[sgarnett]

My first wife had the same problem.

For example, should could not grasp inequalities and absolute values.

We went through what was for her a seemingly exasperating and pointless conversation:

Is Louisville east or west of Lexington? West.
How far is it from Louisville to Lexington? ~90 miles.
How far is it from Lexington to Louisville? ~90 miles of course.
Is Ashland east or west of Lexington? East.
Is Ashland east or west of Louisville? East, of course.

etc.

OK, now substitute "east of" for "greater than" etc. The concepts make sense, but put a different name on them and the brain locks up.

In a first year circuits course I took, the op-amp circuits were all drawn neatly with inputs on the left, outputs on the right, and a neat arrangement of components. On the first exam, the circuits were easy but they were drawn strangely - flipped, inverted, twisted and bent. It's amazing how many people failed because they simply didn't recognize a simple circuit that they knew how to solve.

Often the first step is just to look for something familiar in what seems like gibberish at first glance. You may not know the answer, but start with what you DO know and work from there.