Reddit reviews Engineering Mathematics

Get a copy (or as you're at university might as well take it out of the library on long loan if they've got it) of Engineering Mathematics by K.A Stroud. Amazon link

I found it really helpful in the 1st + 2nd year for the basics, non patronising and it doesn't assume much, if any, prior maths knowledge.

Hi there,

For all intents and purposes, for someone your level the following will be enough material to stick your teeth into for a while.

Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Content-Methods-Meaning-Volumes/dp/0486409163

This is a monster book written by Kolmogorov, a famous probabilist and educator in maths. It will take you from very basic maths all the way to Topology, Analysis and Group Theory. It is however intended as an overview rather than an exhaustive textbook on all of the theorems, proofs and definitions you need to get to higher math.

For relearning foundations so that they're super strong I can only recommend:

Engineering Mathematics
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Engineering-Mathematics-K-Stroud/dp/1403942463

Engineering Mathematics is full of problems and each one is explained in detail. For getting your foundational, mechanical tools perfect, I'd recommend doing every problem in this book.

For low level problem solving I'd recommend going through the ENTIRE Art of Problem Solving curriculum (starting from Prealgebra).
https://www.artofproblemsolving.com/store/list/aops-curriculum

You might learn a thing or two about thinking about mathematical objects in new ways (as an example. When Prealgebra teaches you to think about inverses it forces you to consider 1/x as an object in its own right rather than 1 divided by x and to prove things. Same thing with -x. This was eye opening for me when I was making the transition from mechanical to more proof based maths.)


If you just want to know about what's going on in higher math then you can make do with:
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Princeton-Companion-Mathematics-Timothy-Gowers/dp/0691118809

I've never read it but as far as I understand it's a wonderful book that cherry picks the coolest ideas from higher maths and presents them in a readable form. May require some base level of math to understand

EDIT: Further down the Napkin Project by Evan Chen was recommended by /u/banksyb00mb00m (http://www.mit.edu/~evanchen/napkin.html) which I think is awesome (it is an introduction to lots of areas of advanced maths for International Mathematics Olympiad competitors or just High School kids that are really interested in maths) but should really be approached post getting a strong foundation.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engineering-Mathematics-K-Stroud/dp/1403942463

I was in a similar situation as you, last year. If you are willing to spend any money on this, I definitely suggest this book.

Link

Frequently... No.

The reality is that I use it infrequently enough that I keep a copy of Stroud on the bookcase in my office, so I can refresh my maths as required. In case I start exploring a seemingly simple problem, black out and suddenly come to covered in symbolic notation, knee deep in integrals, clutching the beating heart of a laplace transform and screaming "Leibniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiz!" at the top of my voice!.

So yeah... when I need it, I need it.

Engineering Mathematics https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1403942463/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_i_AtIwCbD4VEH94

Engineering Mathematics. This monster got me through half of my first year.

Seek out engineering math books, seriously.

The two tomes by K.A.Stroud are astoundingly simple to follow.

The only issue would be that they don't cover everything you need :(