[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

[bigshoe]

I'm glad it helped, I may even post some of my problems now! We are doing Reimann sums and the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus right now in my Calc I class.

about jumping into a class like calculus and trying to get things figured out, i would strongly suggest against it, here is why, I went through precalc and trigonometry getting c's, and my understanding of the concepts was there, but I sucked at doing the math, its something you need to learn by repitition and working problems. Anyways, so far calculus is an extension of algebra, using trigonometry all over it to be able to evaluate equations that change, calc 1 being mostly differentiation and intro to integration, and calc 2 being integration. I find it really interesting, the relationship of position vs velocity vs acceleration (position being like an equation that you're using now, velocity being its derivitave, and acceleration being the derivative of velocity)

now, what i was getting to about jumping into calculus, calc 1, looking back now, is easy stuff, the problem is learning the theorems and identities and memorizing them. the biggest problem I see with it is that there is so much going on in calculus that you need to have your algebra down pat. I hope that doesnt discourage you, it just takes practice, and for what its worth, i havent seen imaginary numbers used yet. If you will be taking a regular calculus class (unlike business calculus), there is gonna be alot of trigonometry, and you need to have an understanding of the unit circle and the classic triangles (45-45-45, 30-60-90, 60-60-60), and you'll see another measurement system pop up (it's kinda necessary in calculus) called RADIAN MEASURE, as opposed to what your using now called cartesian coordinates or the x-y plane or whatever its called, the reason is because you will be working with circles, and things that oscillate (if you've dealt with sine waves or anything like that you might know something about this?). So with the pace of the class in universities, I don't think its a good idea to go into calculus right away, I feel will be really easy to give up? take it slow man, thats all you need, practice and take it slow.

Now, for the working backwards thing, I do agree with you there, when it comes to learning math and such, for me it really helps to know how the math will be used in the future, and therefore you can kind of tailor how you approach learning it from an understanding perspective. Its kind of like seeing the end result and then making a direction to approach it, instead of blindly being fed information, not knowing how you will be using it in the future.

But there is one thing for sure, to succeed in the later courses you need a good understanding of how math works, if you can accept that math requires a "type of thinking" and put yourself in that mode, things will get logical mathematically, and you will be able to "read and comprehend" it by looking at a theorem, just like you say you have by looking at formulas. My current instructor preaches on "math speak" if you talk and think mathematically, mathematical ideas will be understood easily and quickly.

i'm no master of anything, but to succeed in this you need to do the following:
1. study and study consistanly
2. ask questions as often as you can
3. don't get pissed when you cant figure something out, I remember reading you have to be "humble" in order to learn, otherwise your attitude rejects learning
4. don't get behind, its harder to catch up

I did #4 alot, and thats why i'm struggling with C's at the moment, i suffer from procrastination.

Ok, sorry for the long post, but I hope it helps and doesnt discourage you, it takes work.

btw, to explain the 5th property of the complex number system that you asked about, it just means that

a+bi = c+di whenever the quantity a=c AND the quantity b=d.
what I think they are trying to show here is that i really isnt a variable, and that the two equations are the same, you may run into something like that if you are given two equations, and you can prove that a=c and c=d, so then if you cannot find the value of any one variable (a,b,c,d) that you can use that property to say its equal since this property says it is.

Miki