(Part 3) Best science & math books according to redditors
We found 24,037 Reddit comments discussing the best science & math books. We ranked the 8,905 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
Simon Singh explains.
edit: Hey, I didn't expect this to become the top comment. Neat. Might as well abuse it, by providing bonus material:
This is the same Simon Singh discussed in this recent and popular Reddit post; he is a superhero of science popularization. He has written some excellent and highly rated books:
(full disclosure: I have nothing to disclose, other than that I'm a fan of his work.)
We've already been attempting something like this at several islands in the Galapagos. There's an island, Daphne Major, that has incredibly restricted access where people have been studying finches since at least the '70s. The original ~20 year study was written about in The Beak of the Finch - definitely worth a read.
If you followed the "Mars Express" design concept as championed by Robert Zubrin you could do it for $10 billion: basically don't fuck about with space stations or moon bases: send a lander to Mars in advance with all of your food and supplies - and another lander that contains the return ship that self fuels on the ground: you don't set off from Earth until the return ship has sieved all the fuel it needs from Mars' atmosphere.
This methodology brings the price down by orders of magnitude from NASAs bloated estimates.
In the book The Black Hole War, Stephen Hawking made a deliberately provocative comment in a small physics symposium that, if Professor Hawking was right, would shake the foundations of quantum physics to the ground. Leonard Susskind disagreed with Hawking's position, but was unable to demonstrate it mathematically.
It would take him ten years to do so, involving him with many other physicists and leading to several startling discoveries about the nature of black holes, time and space, leading to the holographic principle. Ten years of furious, brilliant research by multiple luminaries in the field, all touched off by a single, insightful question by Professor Hawking.
Susskind's book is quite accessible and well worth a read. Readers will get to see how physics is done, at least at the social and professional level. Plus, for a while and through Susskind, one gets to hang around a quiet social gathering of some of the most brilliant physicists the world has seen.
For a more realistic concept of Martian colonization,
The Case For Mars by Robert Zubrin is an excellent read. Zubrin focuses on a smaller scale, less expensive method of colonizing Mars which involves three Ares class launches, one for a MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle), an ERV (Earth Return Vehicle), and habituation module. The MAV will use in-situ, or on planet resources to produce methane rocket propellant and fuel the crew’s method of leaving the planet once their stay ends. They will dock with the ERV in LMO (Low Martian Oribit), where the ERV will perform a transfer burn to get back home. This plan is known as Mars Semi-Direct (the original, known as Mars Direct, combined the MAV and ERV, but NASA necessitated the modifications that created Semi-Direct) and has been a vision of Zubrin since he originally proposed it to NASA in the 1990s. It should be noted, however, that one needs at least a small scientific background to understand Zubrin’s book. (Concepts such as ISP, deltaV, orbital mechanics ex. Hohmann Transfer, and chemistry involving synthesis of propellants as well as catalyst reactions. Most of it is explained but a minimal background in rocket science is helpful)
EDIT: this plan comprises NASA’s most recent Mars plan, which was actually designed around Zubrin’s suggestions and collaboration with NASA as part of the SEI. This plan can be found in more detail
here
You need to develop an "intuition" for proofs, in a crude sense.
I would suggest these books to do that:
Proof, Logic, and Conjecture: The Mathematician's Toolbox by Robert Wolf. This was the book I used for my own proof class at Stony Brook - (edit: when I was a student.) This book goes down to the logic level. It is superbly well written and was of an immense use to me. It's one of those books I've actually re-read entirely, in a very Wax-on Wax-off Mr. Miyagi type way.
How to Read and Do Proofs by Daniel Slow. I bought this little book for my own self study. Slow wrote a really excellent, really concise, "this is how you do a proof" book. Teaching you when to look to try a certain technique of proof before another. This little book is a quick way to answer your TL:DR.
How to Solve it by G. Polya is a classic text in mathematical thinking. Another one I bought for personal collection.
Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Vol 1 and Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Vol 2 also by G. Polya, and equally classic, are two other books on my shelf of "proof and mathematical thinking."
maybe you mean What is Mathematics? by Courant and Robbins.
Read all of his books.
The Demon Haunted World
Cosmos
Varieties of the Scientific Experience
Pale Blue Dot
The Dragons of Eden
Billions and Billions
His novel:
Contact
The Case for Mars is a great read, often recommended on reddit. Published in 1996 but sadly a still relevant proposal for a low cost manned Mars mission using currently available rockets and tech. At the low end it was estimated to be $20B in 1996 dollars ($30B now). It details why NASA departments lobby for far more expensive tech that needs developing to justify their existence and boost their department.
The proposal in the article is for $19.5B annual funding.
If you don't want to read a whole book there is good info at the Mars Direct website or the wiki.
Does anyone know if this type of plan has any current traction?
LMAO
>Peterson:
>I read The Cosmic Serpent, by Jeremy Narby (https://amzn.to/2J2IklU) and found it interesting. It's far from obvious what people can and can't see under the influence of psychedelics. And I didn't "claim" anything. I put forward a tentative hypothesis. That is by no means a claim. If you have a better idea, put it forward.
>/u/BBDG
>From your lecture: ?>https://twitter.com/zei_nabq/status/997575537089564672/video/1
>I really believe that's a representation of DNA
> It has always been about flags and footprints
He literally went against all of NASA by saying 30 days missions were a huge waste of resources and that the only way to properly do Mars Missions was to do opposition class mission, with a year and half stay... That's all in the book.
What's also in the book is that after 5 or 6 cycles (MAV lands at window n, crew lands at window n+1, leaves at window n+2), the covered surface by the frequently spaced landing sites (and by the methane powered rovers) would be sufficient to decide on the best landing site to start a more permanent base.
It's called The Case for Mars (which incidentally will totally be the name of my suitcase if I ever get a seat on one of these MCT), and while it smells like the 90s (built on STS assets, expandable rockets), it definitely is geared toward creating a permanent civilization on Mars. Watch this and tell me again that he is an Apollo kind of guy.
Hawking admitted he was wrong and paid off the bet, Len Susskind wrote a book on 'The Black Hole War' that covers it all pretty well, slightly iffy quality vid of a talk on the subject from himself here.
I don't think you could really call it settled necessarily, as far as I understand it there is currently another (continuing?) debate surrounding the 'firewall paradox'. I guess this article sums it up ok.
I enjoyed this one by the same author: Fermat's Enigma. Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the book tells the story of Andrew Wiles trying to prove Fermat's Last Theorem (and the significance of it), and mixed in throughout is information about all sorts of mathematical history.
This is not a highly advanced or hard-to-read book. Anybody with an interest in mathematics could enjoy it. If you're looking for some higher-level mathematical knowledge, this is not the book to read. I haven't read The Code Book, so I don't know how similar it is.
EDIT: The first review starts with "After enjoying Singh's "The Code Book"..." The reviewer gave it 5 stars.
Seems a waste not to link to this fantastic book about how he solved it.
If you're really interested in this kind of stuff, check out The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. In it, he examines our common ancestors with other life in backwards chronological order (our common ancestor with chimps, then our and chimps' common ancestor with the other apes, then apes' common ancestor with all primates, etc). There's lots of interesting information about how genes express and get selected for. For example, one particularly fascinating chapter covers the origin of our tri-chromal color vision, as opposed to the vision of most other mammals, like dogs, and what happened in our genes to bring about that change.
Not exactly concrete, but several years ago I read a book called The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge.
The name of this thread reminded me of it, and I came here to share the recommendation with anyone interested.
Long story short (please read the book if you're interested) an anthropologist goes into South America, connects with a disconnected remote tribe, begins to study their... well, everything.
For instance, Ayahuasca has an extremely complex preparation procedure, involving a root from one and bark of another plant, combinations of drying and heating, etc. and if the process is not properly completed, you can end up with a toxic brew instead of your hallucino-spirit drug.
When our author would ask how they came to such a complex and seemingly random process, the shaman told him "The plants told us."
He starts to take such answers at face value, and draws some very interesting and awesome theories. The book is a great read, especially for a skeptic.
Relevant: The paintings and art of the shaman this particular anthropologist was involved with were very, very clearly (in some instances) depictions of micro-biological constructs. Here a mitochondria, there a cell wall, here some proteins, etc.
The ultimate "theory" posed by the book involves the idea that DNA is a language commonly "spoke" by all living organisms, and that there are ways to tap into that level of language to communicate on a more literal level.
Not... concrete, but still very interesting, and scientific in nature. :)
Nagel's book 'Gödel's Proof' is a good, intelligible summary of Gödel. I suggest reading that, even if you suck at math.
You could read Timothy Gowers' welcome to the math students at Oxford, which is filled with great advice and helpful links at the bottom.
You could read this collection of links on efficient study habits.
You could read this thread about what it takes to succeed at MIT (which really should apply everywhere). Tons of great discussion in the lower comments.
You could read How to Solve It and/or How to Prove It.
If you can work your way through these two books over the summer, you'll be better prepared than 90% of the incoming math majors (conservatively). They'll make your foundation rock solid.
Nice books but i think it could be more fruitful to learn the real physics behind that (if you haven't done that already). See f.e. http://www.amazon.com/The-Feynman-Lectures-Physics-boxed/dp/0465023827/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374676343&sr=8-1&keywords=feynman+lectures+on+physics
I didn't study biology in high school because I had a full course load of physics, chemistry and mathematics in preparation for engineering school. That being said, biology is one of the courses I regret not taking.
It really is the Greatest Show on Earth. No other scientific concept explains so much about our visible world while being simple and elegant. If you like biology, but have not read any of Dawkin's biology books, I highly recommend them. In addition to the one I already linked, another excellent one is The Ancestor's Tale. Evolution is capable of explaining why species, as you put it, are built they way they are and why they function the way they do. Evolution explains the why of it all. Of course, you don't need to abandon your concept of God, either. Evolution is perfectly compatible with theology.
I'm gonna jump on the top comment to add: David R. Klein's books Organic Chemistry as a Second Language was extremely useful as supplementary material. It really helped clear up any confusion I felt during lecture.
Found it.
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Error-Analysis-Uncertainties-Measurements/dp/093570275X
I doubt this can be answered for a five year old, I read an excellent book on the subject and still don't really get it. I will try to recount the jist of what I remember.
Fermat left a small note scribbled in the margins of a book: a^n + b^n = c^n has no solution for positive integers greater then 2.
What fascinated everyone is that if n=2 you have the Pythagorean theorem which every knows, loves, and uses all the time. But to say that there is no solution for a^3 + b^3 = c^3 well that seems a bit crazy. You can sit down and try to plug in the first few values yourself, and low and behold you cant find any solution. Fermat had claimed that he had a proof that showed that this was true from 3 > infinity. (personally I don't think he had an actual proof, more of a very strong gut instinct and if anyone in his lifetime proved him wrong he would have laughed at them and said that he trolled them hard.)
That's the background, now to your questions, what are mathematical proofs? They show that a given formula is true in all cases, any two positive integers plugged into the Pythagorean theorem will result in a real solution for C.
Why is it hard to make them? because you have to show that the theorem works to infinity, you can plug in billions of numbers into a theorem, and prove nothing because the billionth + 1 may not be true
What was so special about Fermat's? Not much, except that it drove people insane with its simplicity, but it took hundreds of years to prove that a^3 + b^3 = c^3 had no real solutions and hundreds of years more for Andrew Wiles and Richard Taylor to discover the general proof.
From wikipedia as to whether Fermat actually had a general formula:
>Taylor and Wiles's proof relies on mathematical techniques developed in the twentieth century, which would be alien to mathematicians who had worked on Fermat's Last Theorem even a century earlier. Fermat's alleged "marvellous proof", by comparison, would have had to be elementary, given mathematical knowledge of the time, and so could not have been the same as Wiles' proof. Most mathematicians and science historians doubt that Fermat had a valid proof of his theorem for all exponents n.
and finally my attempt at EILI5:
You know how you ask me a million questions every day, and some times I don't have the answer. Now imagine going to your teacher and asking them, and they don't know, and ten years from now you ask another teacher and they still don't know, you grow up and go to college and ask your professors and they don't know either. Your question sounds like it should be easy to answer, why doesn't anyone know the answer, then you try to answer it for yourself, and you can't figure it out. You try for thirty years to answer the question, and talk to other people who have tried to answer the question for the last 400 years and still no answer. Some people might give up, but the fact that you could be the first person in the world to know something makes you work even harder to find the answer to this simple question.
It's available free online, but I've def got a hard cover copy on my bookshelf. I can't really deal with digital versions of things, I need physical books.
If you liked Stephen Hawking, check out Leonard Susskind's The Black Hole War: My Battle With Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics
one book that is also valuable is the Edible Wild Plants
The problem with NASA doesn't really lie in how big its budget is, its in how congress defines the NASA budget.
Congress sets very narrow parameters that results in NASA operating in an very inefficient way. They do this because NASA's funding is used as pork to flow back to their districts.
We can travel to mars far more cheaply than any plan currently being proposed, we can do it basically with the existing NASA budget but it would require a major restructuring that would be politically untenable. If you're very curious in exactly how this can be done (the technical aspects, not the political ones), read Robert Zubrin's: The Case for Mars.
A few that come to mind:
It depends. I actually recommend not getting stuck reading religious arguments and anti-religious arguments. Try instead simply learning about the world. Your life and happiness don't need to be defined by religion, there's a lot more out there.
Read some books on science and history, not religious or atheist ones, just ones that expand knowledge. Things like Cosmos, or a History of the Peloponnesian War. Read about different cultures and their myths, like Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And in the meantime, just be a good person who loves their friends and family, and don't worry about God, or the lack thereof.
When you've learned more and feel comfortable, I suggest learning about the history of your religion, and what people actually believed, not just what the religion claims it was always like. Karen Armstrong's 'The Bible' is a good one. Read an annotated Bible and look at what's actually there. Then feel free to read an apologist and atheist book to hear both sides.
Most importantly, you should be learning for the sake of learning, and enjoy it. Don't feel guilty or torn. That you feel like you deserve eternal torment for simply participating in a ritual with friends and family is a fucking tragedy. Hell, Christmas and Easter are mostly made of pagan traditions, some explicitly outlawed in the Bible, but I'm sure eating chocolate eggs and decorating the tree doesn't make you feel sinful, not should it. We give these things our own meaning, there's no outside force causing you unhappiness or judging you.
There would have been a time that I would have suggested getting a curriculum
text book and going through that, but if you're doing this for independent work
I wouldn't really suggest that as the odds are you're not going to be using a
very good source.
Going on the typical
Arithmetic > Algebra > Calculus
****
Arithmetic
Arithmetic refresher. Lots of stuff in here - not easy.
I think you'd be set after this really. It's a pretty terse text in general.
*****
Algebra
Algebra by Chrystal Part I
Algebra by Chrystal Part II
You can get both of these algebra texts online easily and freely from the search
chrystal algebra part I filetype:pdfchrystal algebra part II filetype:pdfI think that you could get the first (arithmetic) text as well, personally I
prefer having actual books for working. They're also valuable for future
reference. This
filetype:pdfsearch should be remembered and used liberallyfor finding things such as worksheets etc (eg
trigonometry worksheet<br /> filetype:pdffor a search...).Algebra by Gelfland
No where near as comprehensive as chrystals algebra, but interesting and well
written questions (search for 'correspondence series' by Gelfand).
Calculus
Calculus made easy - Thompson
This text is really good imo, there's little rigor in it but for getting a
handle on things and bashing through a few practical problems it's pretty
decent. It's all single variable. If you've done the algebra and stuff before
this then this book would be easy.
Pauls Online Notes (Calculus)
These are just a solid set of Calculus notes, there're lots of examples to work
through which is good. These go through calc I, II, III... So a bit further than
you've asked (I'm not sure why you state up to calc II but ok).
Spivak - Calculus
If you've gone through Chrystals algebra then you'll be used to a formal
approach. This text is only single variable calculus (so that might be calc I
and II in most places I think, ? ) but it's extremely well written and often
touted as one of the best Calculus books written. It's very pure, where as
something like Stewart has a more applied emphasis.
**
Geometry
I've got given any geometry sources, I'm not too sure of the best source for
this or (to be honest) if you really need it for the above. If someone has
good geometry then they're certainly better off, many proofs are given
gemetrically as well and having an intuition for these things is only going to
be good. But I think you can get through without a formal course on it.... I'm
not confident suggesting things on it though, so I'll leave it to others. Just
thought I'd mention it.
****
Here's a list of books I've read that have had a big impact on my journey.
First and foremost tho, you should learn to meditate. That's the most instrumental part of any spiritual path.
Ram Dass – “Be Here Now” - https://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052 - Possibly the most important book in the list – was the biggest impact in my life. Fuses Western and Eastern religions/ideas. Kinda whacky to read, but definitely #1
Ram Dass - “Journey Of Awakening” - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006L7R2EI - Another Ram Dass book - once I got more into Transcendental Meditation and wanted to learn other ways/types of meditation, this helped out.
Clifford Pickover – “Sex, Drugs, Einstein & Elves…” - https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Einstein-Elves-Transcendence/dp/1890572179/ - Somewhat random, frantic book – explores lots of ideas – planted a lot of seeds in my head that I followed up on in most of the books below
Daniel Pinchbeck – “Breaking Open the Head” - https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Open-Head-Psychedelic-Contemporary/dp/0767907434 - First book I read to explore impact of psychedelics on our brains
Jeremy Narby – “Cosmic Serpent” - https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642/ - Got into this book from the above, explores Ayahuasca deeper and relevancy of serpent symbolism in our society and DNA
Robert Forte – “Entheogens and the Future of Religion” - https://www.amazon.com/Entheogens-Future-Religion-Robert-Forte/dp/1594774382 - Collection of essays and speeches from scientists, religious leaders, etc., about the use of psychedelics (referred to as Entheogens) as the catalyst for religion/spirituality
Clark Strand – “Waking up to the Dark” - https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Dark-Ancient-Sleepless/dp/0812997727 - Explores human’s addiction to artificial light, also gets into femininity of religion as balance to masculine ideas in our society
Lee Bolman – “Leading with Soul” - https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Soul-Uncommon-Journey-Spirit/dp/0470619007 - Discusses using spirituality to foster a better, more supportive and creative workplace – pivotal in my honesty/openness approach when chatting about life with coworkers
Eben Alexander – “Proof of Heaven” - https://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195 - A neurophysicist discusses his near death experience and his transformation from non-believer to believer (title is a little click-baity, but very insightful book. His descriptions of his experience align very similarly to deep meditations I’ve had)
Indries Shah – “Thinkers of the East” - https://www.amazon.com/Thinkers-East-Idries-Shah/dp/178479063X/ - A collection of parables and stories from Islamic scholars. Got turned onto Islamic writings after my trip through Pakistan, this book is great for structure around our whole spiritual “journey”
Whitley Strieber – “The Key: A True Encounter” - https://www.amazon.com/Key-True-Encounter-Whitley-Strieber/dp/1585428698 - A man’s recollection of a conversation with a spiritual creature visiting him in a hotel room. Sort of out there, easy to dismiss, but the topics are pretty solid
Mary Scott – “Kundalini in the Physical World” - https://www.amazon.com/Kundalini-Physical-World-Mary-Scott/dp/0710094175/ - Very dense, very difficult scientific book exploring Hinduism and metaphysics (wouldn’t recommend this for light reading, definitely something you’d want to save for later in your “journey”)
Hermann Hesse – “Siddartha” - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/siddhartha-hermann-hesse/1116718450? – Short novel about a spiritual journey, coming of age type book. Beautifully written, very enjoyable.
Reza Aslan - “Zealot” - https://www.amazon.com/ZEALOT-Life-Times-Jesus-Nazareth/dp/140006922X - Talks about the historical Jesus - helped me reconnect with Christianity in a way I didn’t have before
Reza Aslan - “No god but God” - https://www.amazon.com/god-but-God-Updated-Evolution/dp/0812982444 - Same as above, but in terms of Mohammad and Islam. I’m starting to try to integrate the “truths” of our religions to try and form my own understanding
Thich Nhat Hanh - “Silence” - https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Power-Quiet-World-Noise-ebook/dp/B00MEIMCVG - Hanh’s a Vietnamese Buddhist monk - in this book he writes a lot about finding the beauty in silence, turning off the voice in our heads and lives, and living in peace.
Paulo Coelho - “The Alchemist” - https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0062315005/ - Sort of a modern day exploration of “the path” similar to “Siddhartha.” Very easy and a joy to read, good concepts of what it means to be on a “path”
Carlos Castaneda - "The Teachings of Don Juan" - The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671600419 - Started exploring more into shamanism and indigenous spiritual work; this book was a great intro and written in an entertaining and accessible way.
Jean-Yves Leloup - “The Gospel of Mary” - https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Mary-Magdalene-Jean-Yves-Leloup/dp/0892819111/ - The book that finally opened my eyes to the potentiality of the teachings of Christ. This book, combined with the one below, have been truly transformative in my belief system and accepting humanity and the power of love beyond what I’ve found so far in my journey.
Jean-Yves Leloup - “The Gospel of Philip” - https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Philip-Magdalene-Gnosis-Sacred/dp/1594770220 - Really begins to dissect and dive into the metaphysical teachings of Christ, exploring the concept of marriage, human union and sexuality, and the power contained within. This book, combined with the one above, have radically changed my perception of The Church as dissimilar and antithetical to what Christ actually taught.
Ram Dass - “Be Love Now” - https://www.amazon.com/Be-Love-Now-Path-Heart/dp/0061961388 - A follow-up to “Be Here Now” - gets more into the esoteric side of things, his relationship with his Guru, enlightenment, enlightened beings, etc.
Riane Eisler - “The Chalice and the Blade” - https://www.amazon.com/Chalice-Blade-Our-History-Future/dp/0062502891 - An anthropoligical book analyzing the dominative vs cooperative models in the history and pre-history of society and how our roots have been co-opted and rewritten by the dominative model to entrap society into accepting a false truth of violence and dominance as “the way it is”
For pleasure:
Undergraduate
Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, The art of writing reasonable organic reaction mechanisms
Graduate
That's one of my favorite popular science books, so it's wonderful to hear you're getting so much out of it. It really is a fascinating topic, and it's sad that so many Christians close themselves off to it solely to protect their religious beliefs (though as you discovered, it's good for those religious beliefs that they do).
As a companion to the book you might enjoy the Stated Clearly series of videos, which break down evolution very simply (and they're made by an ex-Christian whose education about evolution was part of his reason for leaving the religion). You might also like Coyne's blog, though these days it's more about his personal views than it is about evolution (but some searching on the site will bring up interesting things he's written on a whole host of religious topics from Adam and Eve to "ground of being" theology). He does also have another book you might like (Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible), though I only read part of it since I was familiar with much of it from his blog.
> If you guys have any other book recommendations along these lines, I'm all ears!
You should definitely read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, if only because it's a classic (and widely misrepresented/misunderstood). A little farther afield, one of my favorite popular science books of all time is The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, which looks at human language as an evolved ability. Pinker's primary area of academic expertise is child language acquisition, so he's the most in his element in that book.
If you're interested in neuroscience and the brain you could read How the Mind Works (also by Pinker) or The Tell-Tale Brain by V. S. Ramachandran, both of which are wide-ranging and accessibly written. I'd also recommend Thinking, Fast and Slow by psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Evolution gets a lot of attention in ex-Christian circles, but books like these are highly underrated as antidotes to Christian indoctrination -- nothing cures magical thinking about the "soul", consciousness and so on as much as learning how the brain and the mind actually work.
If you're interested in more general/philosophical works that touch on similar themes, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach made a huge impression on me (years ago). You might also like The Mind's I by Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett, which is a collection of philosophical essays along with commentaries. Books like these will get you thinking about the true mysteries of life, the universe and everything -- the kind of mysteries that have such sterile and unsatisfying "answers" within Christianity and other mythologies.
Don't worry about the past -- just be happy you're learning about all of this now. You've got plenty of life ahead of you to make up for any lost time. Have fun!
Computer scientist here... I'm not a "real" mathematician but I do have a good bit of education and practical experience with some specific fields of like probability, information theory, statistics, logic, combinatorics, and set theory. The vast majority of mathematics, though, I'm only interested in as a hobby. I've never gone much beyond calculus in the standard track of math education, so I to enjoy reading "layman's terms" material about math. Here's some stuff I've enjoyed.
Fermat's Enigma This book covers the history of a famous problem that looks very simple, yet it took several hundred years to resolve. In so doing it gives layman's terms overviews of many mathematical concepts in a manner very similar to jfredett here. It's very readable, and for me at least, it also made the study of mathematics feel even more like an exciting search for beautiful, profound truth.
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth I've been told this book contains some inaccuracies, but I'm including it because I think it's such a cool idea. It's a graphic novelization (seriously, a graphic novel about a logician) of the life of Bertrand Russell, who was deeply involved in some of the last great ideas before Godel's Incompleteness Theorem came along and changed everything. This isn't as much about the math as it is about the people, but I still found it enjoyable when I read it a few years ago, and it helped spark my own interest in mathematics.
Lots of people also love Godel Escher Bach. I haven't read it yet so I can't really comment on it, but it seems to be a common element of everybody's favorite books about math.
https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Ideas-Methods/dp/0195105192
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https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Form-Function-Saunders-MacLane/dp/1461293405/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=MacLane%2C+Saunders&qid=1555006726&s=books&sr=1-3 (unfortunately, very expensive)
Aha! I can't believe I forgot this:
http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X
Peterson guides to edible plants. The most cherished of my possessions. This will keep you alive while you form the earth to your comfort.
Get this. Or something better.
Pros: You can practice survival in your front yard.
Cons: you should practice in spring time/early summer, else you're probably not going to recognize anything in fall/winter.
Seconding u/theUnmutual6's recommendations, in addition to u/BlueSmoke95's suggestion to check out Ann Moura's work. I would like to recommend Ellen Dugan's Natural Witchery and her related domestic witchery books. Ellen is a certified Master Gardener and incorporates plants into much of her work.
Some of my favorite plant books!
Plant Science:
Foraging & Field Guides:
Herbalism:
Ethnobotany:
I also encourage y'all to look into fungi as well. I work with both plants and fungi and I think they bring a fascinating and fulfilling aspect to my work. Plus, hunting for mushrooms is super fun! I can recommend field guide books for folks who are interested, they just tend to be very region-specific so I'm not going to list all of them here.
For general fungus reading I recommend the following:
Algebra
Trigonometry
Functions and Graphs
These are three books that I would recommend to somebody trying to prepare for calculus. They're all written by the mathematician Gelfand and his colleages, and they're some of the best-written math books I've ever read. You come away from reading them really understanding the subject matter. I'd read them in that order, too.
Organic Chemistry as a Second Language literally was the reason I aced orgo.
I recommend some books to you:
http://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Explained-Daniel-C-Dennett/dp/0316180661
http://www.amazon.com/Am-Strange-Loop-Douglas-Hofstadter/dp/0465030785
http://www.amazon.com/The-Minds-Fantasies-Reflections-Self/dp/0465030912
Your sense of self, your "I", your mind, is produced by your brain, which is a physical structure that is not destroyed and remade during sleep. This is why you remember what happened yesterday. "You" are a pile of grey goo in a skull.
As you wish to get into applied statistics (i.e. actually analyzing data), you'll need software. I'd strongly recommend learning and using R because it's completely free and incredibly powerful.
Here are some resources for learning statistics using R:
Then, these websites provide very valuable resources for doing statistics with R:
Hope that helps.
Seconding /u/khanable_ -- most of statistical theory is built on matrix algebra, especially regression. Entry-level textbooks usually use simulations to explain concepts because it's really the only way to get around assuming your audience knows linear algebra.
My Ph.D. program uses Casella and Berger as the main text for all intro classes. It's incredibly thorough, beginning with probability and providing rigorous proofs throughout, but you would need to be comfortable with linear algebra and at least the basic principles of real analysis. That said, this is THE book that I refer to whenever I have a question about statistical theory-- it's always on my desk.
What you refer to as "hyper evolution" is called punctuated equilibrium. The Beak of the Finch is an excellent and very readable explanation of the process.
I really enjoyed Godel's Proof by Nagel + Newman. It's a layman's guide to Godel incompleteness theorem. It avoids some of the more finnicky details, while still giving the overall impression.
https://www.amazon.com/Gödels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371/
If you like that, it's edited by Hofstadter, who wrote Godel-Escher-Bach, a famous book about recurrence.
Finally, I would recommend Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright. It's a life-changing book that dives into the relevance of game theory, evolutionary biology and information technology. (Warning that the first 80 pages are very dry.)
https://www.amazon.com/Nonzero-Logic-Destiny-Robert-Wright/dp/0679758941/
Random selection of some of my favorites to help you expand your horizons:
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is a great introduction to scientific skepticism.
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris is a succinct refutation of Christianity as it's generally practiced in the US employing crystal-clear logic.
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor by Anthony Everitt is the best biography of one of the most interesting men in history, in my personal opinion.
Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski is a jaw-dropping book on history, journalism, travel, contemporary events, philosophy.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a great tome about... everything. Physics, history, biology, art... Plus he's funny as hell. (Check out his In a Sunburned Country for a side-splitting account of his trip to Australia).
The Annotated Mona Lisa by Carol Strickland is a thorough primer on art history. Get it before going to any major museum (Met, Louvre, Tate Modern, Prado, etc).
Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier is a detailed refutation of the whole 'Christianity could not have survived the early years if it weren't for god's providence' argument.
Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman are six of the easier chapters from his '63 Lectures on Physics delivered at CalTech. If you like it and really want to be mind-fucked with science, his QED is a great book on quantum electrodynamics direct from the master.
Lucy's Legacy by Donald Johanson will give you a really great understanding of our family history (homo, australopithecus, ardipithecus, etc). Equally good are Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade and Mapping Human History by Steve Olson, though I personally enjoyed Before the Dawn slightly more.
Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel gives you context for all the Bible stories by detailing contemporaneous events from the Levant, Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc.
After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton is an awesome read if you don't know much about Islam and its early history.
Happy reading!
edit: Also, check out the Reasonable Doubts podcast.
You might get "more" by starting to look at more specialized books. Biographies and non-fiction.
These:
How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.
Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.
Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.
You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.
Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.
Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.
No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.
Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.
A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.
Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.
Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.
The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.
Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.
Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.
Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.
Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.
Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.
Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.
Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.
The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.
The Martian by Andy Weir.
Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.
The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.
Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.
The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.
Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.
International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.
How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.
This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.
The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.
Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz.
Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.
The end
The best beginner book as to "What the fuck is the universe about?" is definitely "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan.
It's a really interesting read, and runs the gambit from the origins of the universe to evolution by natural selection.
Check it out.
Hey! This comment ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, oops.
My all-time favs of these kinds of books definitely has to be Prime Obsession and Unknown Quantity by John Derbyshire - Prime Obsession covers the history behind one of the most famous unsolved problems in all of math - the Riemann hypothesis, and does it while actually diving into some of the actual theory behind it. Unknown Quantity is quite similar to Prime Obsession, except it's a more general overview of the history of algebra. They're also filled with lots of interesting footnotes. (Ignore his other, more questionable political books.)
In a similar vein, Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh also does this really well with Fermat's last theorem, an infamously hard problem that remained unsolved until 1995. The rest of his books are also excellent.
All of Ian Stewart's books are great too - my favs from him are Cabinet, Hoard, and Casebook which are each filled with lots of fun mathematical vignettes, stories, and problems, which you can pick or choose at your leisure.
When it comes to fiction, Edwin Abbott's Flatland is a classic parody of Victorian England and a visualization of what a 4th dimension would look like. (This one's in the public domain, too.) Strictly speaking, this doesn't have any equations in it, but you should definitely still read it for a good mental workout!
Lastly, the Math Girls series is a Japanese YA series all about interesting topics like Taylor series, recursive relations, Fermat's last theorem, and Godel's incompleteness theorems. (Yes, really!) Although the 3rd book actually has a pretty decent plot, they're not really that story or character driven. As an interesting and unique mathematical resource though, they're unmatched!
I'm sure there are lots of other great books I've missed, but as a high school student myself, I can say that these were the books that really introduced me to how crazy and interesting upper-level math could be, without getting too over my head. They're all highly recommended.
Good luck in your mathematical adventures, and have fun!
I took a few and they where so basic I learned more asking questions on the different sections right here on Reddit. If you want to learn wilderness survival read this book
https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Survival-Skills-Larry-Olsen/dp/1556523238/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
For first Aid:
https://www.amazon.com/Outward-Bound-Wilderness-First-Aid-Handbook/dp/1558211063/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1497471617&amp;sr=1-1
For food:
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1497471471&amp;sr=1-1For shelter etc
Etc..
https://www.amazon.com/Bushcraft-101-Field-Wilderness-Survival-ebook/dp/B00MIMHPII/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1
Take these out in the woods and practice what they show. Before you know it you will be able to build a shelter and start a fire in no time.
Get the Feynman lectures, and the Schaum physics series.
On the Schaum one, write ALL the exercises, so you actually get it.
If this is a troll then it is excellent; I'm falling for it hook line and sinker.
However, if you are open to reading about why the reaction has been so negative (with all the downvotes) and want to read something cool instead Zubrin has a book called ["The Case for Mars"][1].
The book is not perfect (there are a few sections that could do with more recent information or more research input) but largely it's a good book that makes the wider points clear.
Or just read the much more approachable blog by Wait but why. Many people on this subreddit are here from that one post.
I promise this is usually a fun sub and people don't often get downvoted so harshly. :)
[1]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Mars-Settle-Planet/dp/145160811X
"The MAV was an orbital craft...it would be nearly useless if it were not. The reason why it needs to be heavily modified, and why it DOESN'T achieve orbit (even though it could) is because it has to match the insanely fast velocity of the Hermes as it does a fly-by. A little orbital mechanics, and what happened to the MAV after the rendezvous was that it escaped Mars' gravity entirely and went into a long orbit around the sun. There's a slim chance it fell into the Sun, but making that happen is harder than you think."
"Much of the hard science behind the Martian and in NASA thinking in general surrounding Mars comes from a book called The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin. While it's a policy book, it's extremely engaging."
I mean the classical mechanics of orbits described in this book: https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X
The body that is orbiting slows down and speeds up during elliptical orbit, so the total energy of the system or think of the point of maximum kinetic energy is in essence what keeps it from colliding with the main body. There are also cases where this does happen and cases where other things happen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_equation
Classical Mechanics by John Taylor
"Organic Chemistry as a Second Language" .... got a 3.7 in O Chem using this book. You definitely have to do a bunch of problems though.
http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/111801040X
Barton Zwiebach's First Course in String Theory provides a good overview of quite a complex topic. Unfortunately, even though it is meant as an introductory textbook, it is likely to be entirely incomprehensible to the average reader.
&nbsp;
To make it through this book, knowledge of quite a few preliminary topics is needed:
The Greatest Show on Earth
or
The Ancestor's Tale which is a personal favorite of mine although not specifically devoted to evidence arguments. It's just an amazing read through our biological world and along the way the case for evolution becomes overwhelming.
>evolution occurs- just not as fast as darwin would like in order to explain the creatures that exist on the timeline that the archeological record shows
Actually, can occur far faster than he anticipated.
1
2
3
Additionally, if the planet were seeded, it would have to have been prior to the emergence of modern bacteria; otherwise, their phylogenies wouldn't make any sense. Which is probably before any of the archaeological evidence you're talking about.
A good book on Gödel's proof is Gödel's Proof.
Talk about a lack of substance!
A book I read way back when that was excellent was Gödel’s Proof by Nagel and Newman. http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371
You would probably like these two books:
Neither of those are "popular math" books; the authors are famous mathematicians, and they explore various fields of mathematics without requiring too much advanced knowledge.
While I think you're right, there's still some debate in the physics community about whether the particle becomes entangled with the black hole. It assumes information is preserved in black holes, which goes into the question of the black hole information paradox.
Susskind wrote an entire book on that exact subject called The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics. While Hawking did concede and agree with Susskind, not everyone did and it's still an active area of debate and research.
Edit: For some very closely related discussion read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(physics)
I deeply respect Hawking, but he often makes mistakes due to the fact that he has to do the calculations in his head. Read Leonard Susskind's http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Hole-War-Mechanics/dp/0316016411 for an example of when Hawking incorrectly asserted that black holes violate the second law of thermodynamics.
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345331354
Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh.
(I'm reasonably sure the linked book is Fermat's Last Theorm, just with a different title. It was the closest I could find on US Amazon)
Get a copy of Div, Grad, Curl. It will walk you through the math you need.
Pick up a copy of the Peterson Field Guide for Eastern US (https://www.amazon.com/dp/039592622X/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_zlTIub0TPCHW2).
If you know someone with the knowledge, spend some time with them learning, but the Field Guide can help you identify a number of edible plants in PA.
Edit: Spelling
There is a boxed set of the Feynman lectures and you could all sign it
https://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-boxed-set/dp/0465023827/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527257509&sr=8-1&keywords=feynman+lectures+on+physics&dpID=41wmHOxcldL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
For those who haven't read this, there's quite a bit of insight into various arguments between Hawking, Susskind and others surrounding the nature of black holes. Great read!
The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0316016411/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ba6IDbV4BJ2DK
I picked up the book by Simon Singh at a garage sale 10 or so years ago. Fascinating read. Looking forward to watching the doc now.
EDIT: evidently the book is now called Fermat's Enigma in the US...
No tools, no sports, no company.
All for less than $10
You may want to try reading from a different book. I loved Taylor's Classical Mechanics. It looks like it covers most of the same topic. It does Special Relativity, but I don't think it does General Relativity.
I'm also planning on doing a Masters in Math or CS. What do you plan to write for your masters?
> Anybody else feels like this?
I think its natural to doubt yourself, sometimes. I dont know what else to say, but just try to be objective and emotionless about it (when you get stuck in a problem).
The following books that helped me improve my math problem solving skills when I was an undergrad:
I think this is the recommended replacement for Polya's "How to Solve It"
http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-It-Mathematical-Princeton/dp/069111966X
Seriously what do you want to be "modernized?"
Try one (or a few) of these:
http://www.amazon.ca/Thinking-Mathematically-J-Mason/dp/0201102382
http://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Like-Mathematician-Undergraduate/dp/052171978X/
http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Mathematical-Princeton-Science/dp/069111966X
www.amazon.com/How-Prove-It-Structured-Approach/dp/0521675995/
www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mathematical-Thinking-Keith-Devlin/dp/0615653634/
https://www.coursera.org/course/maththink
Gödel proved several theorems; I'm guessing you're referring to the incompleteness theorems, which are the most well-known. The key point is that Gödel's incompleteness theorems are precise mathematical statements about certain formal systems — not vague philosophical generalities about the nature of truth or anything like that.
In particular, the content of the first incompleteness theorem is essentially:
>In any consistent, effectively generated formal theory that proves certain basic arithmetic truths, there is an arithmetical statement that is true (in the standard model of arithmetic), but not provable in the theory.
This statement, as with any other statement mathematicians call a "theorem", has been formally proven. Philosophical questions like whether mathematical objects are "real" in whatever sense are irrelevant to the question of whether something is a theorem or not.
By the way, if you want a good introduction to the details of what Gödel's incompleteness theorems say and how they can be proved, I highly recommend Gödel's Proof by Nagel and Newman.
Most universities have a physics 101 class tailored to people like you. If you are already in school, you could express your interest to the teacher and ask to sit in on the class. I've done this for several classes and never had a teacher refuse my request, but if they say no, you can always just pay a little money and audit the class. The cost varies per school, but at my university it was only $30.
If you are looking for a book, I'd suggest Richard Feynman's Six Easy Pieces. I don't remember it containing any math at all, but is excellent for understanding some of the fundamental concepts of physics.
If you have a particular concept you'd like to understand, you can ask me! I would love to talk about physics to anyone at anytime.
Matter and energy are not all there is - there is also information. Information is real - it can be measured, created, destroyed, duplicated, modified and transmitted over huge distances. It is not supernatural, but it is what makes the difference between a dumb machine and life (or an intelligent machine).
Consider a Beethoven symphony. This does not have a physical existence, but it does exist. It has representations in the physical world - dots and lines on a piece of paper, vibrations in the air, grooves or microscopic holes in a plastic disk, arrangements of magnetic fields on a tape or hard drive. Even a pattern of neurons firing in someone's head as they play the music back in their mind. The symphony is not any of those things - it is in the pattern that they represent. The symphony is the information that each of them encodes.
Similarly, my consciousness is not my physical body or the energy that the body consumes, but the pattern of neurons in my head, and the dynamics of the way the neurons interact. I am information.
The difference between my minds "I" and a Beethoven symphony is that there is only one encoding of me, so if my body dies then I die with it. To destroy a Beethoven symphony you would have to destroy all the millions of different encodings that are out there.
Maybe someday we will have the technology to make backups of our consciousness, but I don't expect it will be in my lifetime.
Edit: For more on this viewpoint and on lots of alternative views, I recommend reading The Mind's I by Douglas Hoffstadter and Daniel Dennett.
For mathematical statistics: Statistical Inference.
Bioinformatics and Statistics: Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics.
R: R in a Nutshell.
Edit: The Elements of Statistical Learning (free PDF!!)
ESL is a great book, but it can get very difficult very quickly. You'll need a solid background in linear algebra to understand it. I find it delightfully more statistical than most machine learning books. And the effort in terms of examples and graphics is unparalleled.
If you haven't already, you might enjoy putting aside a few weeks reading for The Ancestor's Tale. It's just dozens of those stories.
One of the most amazing ones is about Ring Species, which are nothing short of absolute proof of speciation with no need for fossils or gene analysis.
I think Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale is one of his best. It takes the traditional bacteria to human story of evolution and flips it on its head, escaping the sense of directed progress that so often occurs in evolutionary books. I would also second the suggestion for Shubin's Your Inner Fish.
Here is a good book about the people who study Darwin's Finches in the Galapagos. The researchers have documented the birds evolving very quickly in response to droughts and floods on the island. It's fascinating!
I hope I am not too late.
You can post this to /r/suicidewatch.
Here is my half-baked attempt at providing you with some answers.
First of all let's see, what is the problem? Money and women. This sounds rather stereotypical but it became a stereotype because a lot of people had this kind of problems. So if you are bad at money and at women, join the club, everybody sucks at this.
Now, there are a few strategies of coping with this. I can tell you what worked for me and perhaps that will help you too.
I guess if there is only one thing that I would change in your attitude that would improve anything is learning the fact that "there is more where that came from". This is really important in girl problems and in money problems.
When you are speaking with a girl, I noticed that early on, men tend to start being very submissive and immature in a way. They start to offer her all the decision power because they are afraid not to lose her. This is a somehow normal response but it affects the relationship negatively. She sees you as lacking power and confidence and she shall grow cold. So here lies the strange balance between good and bad: you have to be powerful but also warm and magnanimous. You can only do this by experimenting without fearing the results of your actions. Even if the worst comes to happen, and she breaks up with you .... you'll always get a better option. There are 3.5 billion ladies on the planet. The statistics are skewed in your favor.
Now for the money issue. Again, there is more where that came from. The money, are a relatively recent invention. Our society is built upon them but we survived for 3 million years without them. The thing you need to learn is that your survival isn't directly related to money. You can always get food, shelter and a lot of other stuff for free. You won't live the good life, but you won't die. So why the anxiety then?
Question: It seems to me you are talking out of your ass. How do I put into practice this in order to get a girlfriend?
Answer: Talk to people. Male and female. Make the following your goals:
Talk to 1 girl each day for one month.
Meet a few friends each 3 days.
Make a new friend each two weeks.
Post your romantic encounters in /r/seduction.
This activities will add up after some time and you will have enough social skill to attract a female. You will understand what your female friend is thinking. Don't feel too bad if it doesn't work out.
Question: The above doesn't give a lot of practical advice on getting money. I want more of that. How do I get it?
Answer: To give you money people need to care about you. People only care about you when you care about them. This is why you need to do the following:
Start solving hard problems.
Start helping people.
Problems aren't only school problems. They refer to anything: start learning a new difficult subject (for example start learning physics or start playing an instrument or start writing a novel). Take up a really difficult project that is just above the verge of what you think you are able to do. Helping people is something more difficult and personal. You can work for charity, help your family members around the house and other similar.
Question: I don't understand. I have problems and you are asking me to work for charity, donate money? How can giving money solve anything?
Answer: If you don't give, how can you receive? Helping others is instilling a sense of purpose in a very strange way. You become superior to others by helping them in a dispassionate way.
Question: I feel like I am going to cry, you are making fun of me!
Answer: Not entirely untrue. But this is not the problem. The problem is that you are taking yourself too serious. We all are, and I have similar problems. The true mark of a person of genius is to laugh at himself. Cultivate your sense of humor in any manner you can.
Question: What does it matter then if I choose to kill myself?
Answer: There is this really good anecdote about Thales of Miletus (search wiki). He was preaching that there is no difference between life and death. His friends asked him: If there is no difference, why don't you kill yourself. At this, he instantly answered: I don't kill myself because there is no difference.
Question: Even if I would like to change and do the things you want me to do, human nature is faulty. It is certain that I would have relapses. How do I snap out of it?
Answer: There are five habits that you should instill that will keep bad emotions away. Either of this habits has its own benefits and drawbacks:
Question: Your post seems somewhat interesting but more in an intriguing kind of way. I would like to know more.
Answer: There are a few good books on these subjects. I don't expect you to read all of them, but consider them at least.
For general mental change over I recommend this:
http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-Mind/dp/1400078393/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324795853&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Generous-Man-Helping-Others-Sexiest/dp/1560257288
For girl issues I recommend the following book. This will open up a whole bag of worms and you will have an entire literature to pick from. This is not going to be easy. Remember though, difficult is good for you.
http://www.amazon.com/GAME-UNDERCOVER-SOCIETY-PICK-UP-ARTISTS/dp/1841957518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324795664&amp;sr=8-1 (lately it is popular to dish this book for a number of reasons. Read it and decide for yourself. There is a lot of truth in it)
Regarding money problem, the first thing is to learn to solve problems. The following is the best in my opinion
http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Mathematical-Princeton-Science/dp/069111966X
The second thing about money is to understand why our culture seems wrong and you don't seem to have enough. This will make you a bit more comfortable when you don't have money.
http://www.amazon.com/Story-B-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553379011/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324795746&amp;sr=8-3 (this one has a prequel called Ishmael. which people usually like better. This one is more to my liking.)
For mental contemplation there are two recommendations:
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html . This one is for meditation purposes.
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Pilgrim-Continues-His/dp/0060630175 . This one is if you want to learn how to pray. I am an orthodox Christian and this is what worked for me. I cannot recommend things I didn't try.
For exercising I found bodyweight exercising to be one of the best for me. I will recommend only from this area. Of course, you can take up weights or whatever.
http://www.amazon.com/Convict-Conditioning-Weakness-Survival-Strength/dp/0938045768/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324795875&amp;sr=8-1 (this is what I use and I am rather happy with it. A lot of people recommend this one instead: http://www.rosstraining.com/nevergymless.html )
Regarding friends, the following is the best bang for your bucks:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/1439167346/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324796461&amp;sr=8-1 (again, lots of criticism, but lots of praise too)
The rest of the points are addressed in the above books. I haven't given any book on financial advices. Once you know how to solve problems and use google and try to help people money will start coming, don't worry.
I hope this post helps you, even though it is a bit long and cynical.
Merry Christmas!
On a more serious note, this book by Polya is wonderful.
Please take a look at What is mathematics by Courant, Robbins, Stewart. It is much leaner, yet it is accessible and was endorsed by Einstein:
"A lucid representation of the fundamental concepts and methods of the whole field of mathematics. It is an easily understandable introduction for the layman and helps to give the mathematical student a general view of the basic principles and methods."
I really like What is Mathematics by Richard Courant. It's aimed at the lay person and I think a 13 year old would enjoy it. It's a book you can jump around in too.
Some of my favorites:
Brian Greene -- The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Elegant Universe, and The Hidden Reality. Greene is, to my mind, very similar to Hawking in his ability to take complex subjects and make them understandable for the physics layman.
Hawking -- I see you've read A Brief History of Time, but Hawking has a couple of other books that are great. The Grand Design, The Universe in a Nutshell, and A Briefer History of Time.
Same thing applies to Brian Cox. Here's his Amazon page.
Leonard Susskind -- The Black Hole Wars. Here's the basic idea behind this book. One of the basic tenets of physics is that "information" is never lost. Stephen Hawking delivered a presentation that apparently showed that when matter falls into a black hole, information is lost. This set the physics world on edge. Susskind (and his partner Gerard T'Hooft) set out to prove Hawking wrong. Spoilers: they do so. And in doing so, they apparently proved that what we see as 3 dimensions is probably similar to those 2-D stickers that project a hologram. It's called the Holographic Principle.
Lee Smolin -- The Trouble with Physics. If you read the aforementioned books and/or keep up with physics through pop science sources, you'll probably recognize that string theory is pretty dang popular. Smolin's book is a criticism of string theory. He's also got a book that's on my to-read list called Three Roads to Quantum Gravity.
Joao Magueijo -- Faster Than the Speed of Light. This is another physics book that cuts against the prevailing academic grain. Physics says that the speed of light is a universal speed limit. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Magueijo's book is about his theory that the speed of light is, itself, variable, and it's been different speeds at different times in the universe's history. You may not end up agreeing with Magueijo, but the guy is smart, he's cocky, and he writes well.
Ah, Leonard Susskind is a boss.
I'd recommend giving The Black Hole War a read if you haven't already.
A commonly used book for this exact purpose is Div, Grad, Curl by Schey.
For multivariable calculus I cannot recommend Div, Grad, Curl and All That enough. It’s got wonderful physically motivated examples and great problems. If you work through all the problems you’ll have s nice grasp on some central topics of vector calculus. It’s also rather thin, making it feel approachable for self learning (and easy to travel with).
This should keep you busy, but I can suggest books in other areas if you want.
Math books:
Algebra: http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-I-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1251516690&amp;sr=8
Calc: http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-4th-Michael-Spivak/dp/0914098918/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1356152827&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=spivak+calculus
Calc: http://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Dover-Books-Mathematics/dp/048663518X
Linear algebra: http://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Modern-Introduction-CD-ROM/dp/0534998453/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1255703167&amp;sr=8-4
Linear algebra: http://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Dover-Mathematics-ebook/dp/B00A73IXRC/ref=zg_bs_158739011_2
Beginning physics:
http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-boxed-set/dp/0465023827
Advanced stuff, if you make it through the beginning books:
E&M: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Electrodynamics-Edition-David-Griffiths/dp/0321856562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1375653392&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=griffiths+electrodynamics
Mechanics: http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Dynamics-Particles-Systems-Thornton/dp/0534408966/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1375653415&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=marion+thornton
Quantum: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Quantum-Mechanics-2nd-Edition/dp/0306447908/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1375653438&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=shankar
Cosmology -- these are both low level and low math, and you can probably handle them now:
http://www.amazon.com/Spacetime-Physics-Edwin-F-Taylor/dp/0716723271
http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Three-Minutes-Universe/dp/0465024378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1356155850&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+first+three+minutes
Have you looked into the Feynman lectures for Physics? As an EE you've probably had an intro physics sequence, so maybe you were looking for something further afield... But the Feynman lectures are a great second course on "basic" physics that's conversational, but goes into a lot of gritty details that are often glossed over. There aren't problems in the book, but there is a companion spiral bound booklet with problems designed to parallel the text; I can't speak for how useful they are. The quantum mechanics section takes a very different approach than what one usually sees.
He doesn't skimp on applications either... simple machines, lightning, crystal structure, wakes in non-ideal fluids. If the math required to analyze something is above the level of the book, he describes it accurately anyways, and explains why the problem is hard--not something you see everywhere.
Amazon; this is all three volumes in one.
These two books helped me through Ochem: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language Vol. 1 and Vol 2. The guy also has a very good text book that comes with an absolutely ENORMOUS answer book that has every single problem in the textbook mapped out. I don't recommend the Wiley Plus/Orion online homework system thing, but these are great resources.
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/111801040X
Read: A Case for Mars
It answers these kind of answers much better and more legitimately than /u/probelike. We don't need to go to the poles to refine fuel, there are techniques where you bring 1/8th of the fuel you need to get back and spend 2 years using a specific chemical process of pulling out a gas from the thin martian atmosphere to get the other 7/8ths. (You can read a more detailed account on the physics and engineering behind that in the book linked in my comment. It also talks about how people determine 'how long it will take to get to mars' which is not a set time, it all depends on how much fuel you want to use.)
For Calculus:
Calculus Early Transcendentals by James Stewart
^ Link to Amazon
Khan Academy Calculus Youtube Playlist
For Physics:
Introductory Physics by Giancoli
^ Link to Amazon
Crash Course Physics Youtube Playlist
Here are additional reading materials when you're a bit farther along:
Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary Boas
Modern Physics by Randy Harris
Classical Mechanics by John Taylor
Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths
Introduction to Particle Physics by Griffiths
The Feynman Lectures
With most of these you will be able to find PDFs of the book and the solutions. Otherwise if you prefer hardcopies you can get them on Amazon. I used to be adigital guy but have switched to physical copies because they are easier to reference in my opinion. Let me know if this helps and if you need more.
The analogous book for me was Townsend's Quantum Physics: A Fundamental Approach to Modern Physics. It spends a good deal of time on introducing you to quantum mechanics, as it should, but there are also discussions of solid state, nuclear, and particle physics, in addition to relativity.
Honestly, if you are looking for an in-depth treatment of special relativity it might be worth finding a book on that specifically, because it's generally not treated in a lot of depth in classes, since such depth isn't needed (it's relatively simple, if potentially unintuitive at first). Chapter 15 of Taylor, for example, has a good treatment of special relativity, and it's regarded as one of the canonical texts for classical mechanics (edit: at the introductory/intermediate level, that is).
John Taylor's Classical Mechanics and David Griffith's Introduction to Electrodynamics might be more your speed. They've been the texts for my Classical Mechanics and E&M courses.
>I read The Cosmic Serpent, by Jeremy Narby (https://amzn.to/2J2IklU) and found it interesting. It's far from obvious what people can and can't see under the influence of psychedelics. And I didn't "claim" anything. I put forward a tentative hypothesis. That is by no means a claim. If you have a better idea, put it forward.
I once asserted the central thesis of a book I read. Now that I have been criticized for its ridiculous conclusion I no longer assert that. But just think about it, it is possible, you never know.
>I also liked this, for a slightly different take (on the universality of serpent/dragon symbolism): An Instinct for Dragons, by David E Jones: https://amzn.to/2IKnc0w
This is a book about the origins of the concept of dragons. Scientists might scoff but I see deeper than they do.
>Serpent imagery is unimaginably deep. For a discussion of the relationship between human beings and predatory reptiles (snakes, mostly) you could also read Lynn Isbell's fascinating The Fruit, the Tree and the Serpent: Why We See so Well: https://amzn.to/2IKJCTh
Snakes are dangerous, this is interesting.
This image was used for the cover of a famous text on error analysis.
Get this:
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/111801040X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1494750631&amp;sr=8-3-fkmr0&amp;keywords=ochem+as+a+se
Ochem 1 was pretty memorization and concept heavy. Not much to do other than practice and get concepts down.
For Ochem 2, do a lot of practice problems until you see the patterns. Treat it as math rather than chemistry. Each reaction is an equation that can be applied to specific situations. Learn to see those situations and apply the equation to it. Get help when you need it, go to office hours for the hell of it, and stay on top of things. And you dont really need to memorize the reactions. If you know the reagents, just remember that nucleophile attacks electrophile, e source to e sink. Just think and look.
The class itself isnt that hard. Theres nothing special about it. Its just chemistry. Go in with a good attitude rather than thinking its the hardest subject in the world and you will do just fine.
How To Build Your Own Spaceship is a fantastic introduction to rocket appliances and commercial space flight. It's pretty short, too. I highly recommend.
And obviously The Case for Mars.
Yes, this book is a good introduction to general mechanics with applied integrale/differential calculus : http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X
I just want to point out one thing that everyone seems to be glossing over: when people say that you'll need to review classical mechanics, they aren't talking only about Newtonian Mechanics. The standard treatment of Quantum Mechanics draws heavily from an alternative formulation of classical mechanics known as Hamiltonian Mechanics that I'm willing to bet you didn't cover in your physics education. This field is a bit of a beast in its own right (one of those that can pretty much get as complicated/mathematically taxing as you let it) and it certainly isn't necessary to become an expert in order to understand quantum mechanics. I'm at a bit of a loss to recommend a good textbook for an introduction to this subject, though. I used Taylor in my first course on the subject, but I don't really like that book. Goldstein is a wonderful book and widely considered to be the bible of classical mechanics, but can be a bit of a struggle.
Also, your math education may stand you in better stead than you think. Quantum mechanics done (IMHO) right is a very algebraic beast with all the nasty integrals saved for the end. You're certainly better off than someone with a background only in calculus. If you know calculus in 3 dimensions along with linear algebra, I'd say find a place to get a feel for Hamiltonian mechanics and dive right in to Griffiths or Shankar. (I've never read Shankar, so I can't speak to its quality directly, but I've heard only good things. Griffiths is quite understandable, though, and not at all terse.) If you find that you want a bit more detail on some of the topics in math that are glossed over in those treatments (like properties of Hilbert Space) I'd recommend asking r/math for a recommendation for a functional analysis textbook. (Warning:functional analysis is a bit of a mindfuck. I'd recommend taking these results on faith unless you're really curious.) You might also look into Eisberg and Resnick if you want a more historical/experimentally motivated treatment.
All in all, I think its doable. It is my firm belief that anyone can understand quantum mechanics (at least to the extent that anyone understands quantum mechanics) provided they put in the effort. It will be a fair amount of effort though. Above all, DO THE PROBLEMS! You can't actually learn physics without applying it. Also, you should be warned that no matter how deep you delve into the subject, there's always farther to go. That's the wonderful thing about physics: you can never know it all. There just comes a point where the questions you ask are current research questions.
Good Luck!
It was my favorite book in undergrad and from what I remember it's really well written. I recall that if I was confused about a topic in lecture I could go to the relevant chapter and end up with a clear understanding.
Admittedly it's been a while since I last read it but hopefully there may be some more helpful reviews here https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X
Cheers!
[Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher] (http://www.amazon.com/Six-Easy-Pieces-Essentials-Explained/dp/0465025277/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373335527&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=richard+feynman)
If you're interested in consciousness, The Mind's I is a great collection of essays and dialogues from different authors, most of which are very accessible. They cover the topic from a lot of different angles and do a good job of prompting the kind of conceptual groundwork you need in order to delve deeper into the subject.
Try the two:
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mathematical-Statistics-Robert-Hogg/dp/0321795431
https://www.amazon.com/Statistical-Inference-George-Casella/dp/0534243126
introduction to mathematical statistics by craig and statistical inference by george casella.
In addition to linear regression, do you need a reference for future use/other topics? Casella/Berger is a good one.
For linear regression, I really enjoyed A Modern Approach to Regression with R.
Casella and Berger is a fairly standard text for first-year graduate Math Stats courses. It's not the most detailed or exhaustive text on the topic, but it covers the main points and is fairly accessible.
Along those lines, Dawkins is great for explaining evolution in easy-to-understand detail. Pick pretty much any book by him and you'll get a very good education.
If you're interested in this topic, I highly recommend Dawkins "The Ancestor's Tale." It starts with modern humans, and then it works it's way back through our ancestors (explaining as it goes along when our "cousins" join the family tree; or to put it differently, it explains, in real time (rather than going backwards), our cousins departure from our common ancestor to the place they hold today). It doesn't focus exclusively on hominids or "transitional fossils," but the scope of the book will definitely give you an idea of the mountains of evidence we have for determining our ancestors, our cousins, and our family tree. I'm only about halfway through, but I've enjoyed it quite a bit so far. Take a look at the reviews online, and if it looks good, pick it up.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Evolution/dp/061861916X
>So, my question is- Would you recommend me to skip right into the formal logic parts (and things related, such as computer programs) when reading the book?
I dunno, it depends on what you're trying to get out of the book, I guess. If you just want an exposition of Gödel's incompleteness theorems you can skip to the logic parts, but if that's your goal then there are better books that will get you there faster and more rigorously, like Gödel's Proof by Newman and Nagel, and, incidentally, edited by Hofstadter.
If you're looking for a concise introductory level reference, I don't know of any at only the high-school level; additionally most undergrad level textbooks are gonna assume a certain level of sophistication w.r.t. the student.
However, if you are interested, the book "Godel's Proof" by Nagel, offers many accessible insights into the workings of mathemical logic
https://www.amazon.com/Gödels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371
I know this is not exactly what you had in mind, but one of the most significant proofs of the 20th century has an entire book written about it:
http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371
The proof they cover is long and complicated, but the book is nonetheless intended for the educated layperson. It is very, very well written and goes to great lengths to avoid unnecessary mathematical abstraction. Maybe check it out.
Well I don't know how interested you are in this, but if you want to understand the incompleteness theorem and its implications without learning all of number theory, I ran across this book which provides the history leading up to Gödel, the mathematical context he was working in (e.g. Hilbert's project), and a full explanation of the proof itself in just over 100 pages. I read it in a day, and while I have a background in the area, even if you didn't know anything going into it, you could probably understand the whole thing with two days' careful reading.
>If I can barely do long division and I’m horrible at math, how would I bring my skills up to be able to pass a statistic class.
Go to the library, find some books appropriate for your level. If you want me to pick a book for you, start with Algebra by Gelfrand. Khan Academy might also help.
>Is math just memorization
No, this is why you're bad at it. You need to memorize as little as possible.
>and practice or is it something that I need to read books about?
You should practice a lot and spend time reading. When reading,
go slowly, take notes, and work out details for yourself. Your primary goal needs to be understanding. Everything in math is supposed to make sense, you learn when it makes sense to you.
>I absolutely hate math but desperately need help in order to graduate.
You need to kill this mentality, if you continue to feel like this it's just not going to be possible to learn. It's abundantly clear from your post that you've approached math wrong your whole life. This isn't really your fault. Math is highly cumulative, and if you lose track at some point it'll be impossible to follow meaningfully after. Most teachers are bad, and the system doesn't incentivize learning math well. This is your chance to change all that. You can start from zero, and learn things right this time. If you approach it with an open mind and put in the necessary work (it won't be easy!), you'll come to see it's a beautiful subject.
This is a compilation of what I gathered from reading on the internet about self-learning higher maths, I haven't come close to reading all this books or watching all this lectures, still I hope it helps you.
General Stuff:
The books here deal with large parts of mathematics and are good to guide you through it all, but I recommend supplementing them with other books.
Linear Algebra: An extremelly versatile branch of Mathematics that can be applied to almost anything, also the first "real math" class in most universities.
Calculus: The first mathematics course in most Colleges, deals with how functions change and has many applications, besides it's a doorway to Analysis.
Real Analysis: More formalized calculus and math in general, one of the building blocks of modern mathematics.
Abstract Algebra: One of the most important, and in my opinion fun, subjects in mathematics. Deals with algebraic structures, which are roughly sets with operations and properties of this operations.
There are many other beautiful fields in math full of online resources, like Number Theory and Combinatorics, that I would like to put recommendations here, but it is quite late where I live and I learned those in weirder ways (through olympiad classes and problems), so I don't think I can help you with them, still you should do some research on this sub to get good recommendations on this topics and use the General books as guides.
Bill Nye
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Carl Sagan
Stephen Hawking
Other
I think I could possibly answer a part of your question in this post that I already made, but let me elaborate further since it isn't everyday that I'm able to have deep conversation IRL. My room-mates are muggles.
>But, what you're saying is that any such identity is acceptable and that one has to possess at least one such identity to be alive?
Yes. That's what I feel. As long as I (what is this 'I' in the first place) have an identity which ever it may be, as long as I'm self-aware I don't mind.
After all, can you imagine how the world was before you were born? How it will be after you die or 'die'? It's simply unimaginable. Coming back to our identity, I'd rather be someone since hey, if I'm that someone, I wouldn't know about this 'me' or would I? What guarantee do I have against the fact that every night when I go to sleep, my mannerism are completely altered, and my memories retroactively correct themselves.
Not to sound depressing (since I'm not depressed or anything) but mind, brain, body, life, existence seem pretty puny when compared to the vast scales of space and time that exists. Yes, I'm reading that and each moment I spend reading it, I get angrier at humans for the false sense of pride.
Thanks for the suggestions! Just so you are aware the Fermat's Enigma link is a duplicate of Journey through Genius.
Journey through Genius sounds really interesting. I'm curious if you've ever read Gödel, Escher, Bach? If so how would you compare the two?
Not sure if they qualify as "beautifully written", but I've got two that are such good reads that I love to go back to them from time to time:
You're English is great.
I'd like to reemphasize /u/Plaetean's great suggestion of learning the math. That's so important and will make your later career much easier. Khan Academy seems to go all through differential equations. All of the more advanced topics they have differential and integral calculus of the single variable, multivariable calculus, ordinary differential equations, and linear algebra are very useful in physics.
As to textbooks that cover that material I've heard Div, Grad, Curl for multivariable/vector calculus is good, as is Strang for linear algebra. Purcell an introductory E&M text also has an excellent discussion of the curl.
As for introductory physics I love Purcell's E&M. I'd recommend the third edition to you as although it uses SI units, which personally I dislike, it has far more problems than the second, and crucially has many solutions to them included, which makes it much better for self study. As for Mechanics there are a million possible textbooks, and online sources. I'll let someone else recommend that.
Hardcover boxed set of the Feynman Lectures
Hiya! I'm a recent physics/computer science graduate and although I can't think of any super cool handmade options off the top of my head, there are some physics books that I find interesting that your boyfriend may enjoy. One solid idea would be just about anything written by Richard Feynman. Reading through the Feynman Lectures is pretty standard for all physicists, though there are free versions online as well. There are a few others, such as The Pleasure of Finding things Out and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. There's also a cool graphic novel that recounts the events of his life called Feynman by Ottaviani. If you're not familiar with who this guy is, he is a colorful and concise orator who won a nobel prize in physics. His biggest contributions were in nuclear physics and quantum computation, and his quirks make his explanations of these topics very interesting. The Feynman Lectures are more formal, while his personal books are a mixture of personal experience and explanation.
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Something else that I typically gift all of my friends who are problem solvers interested in physics is the book Thinking Physics. This book is great for developing some high level intuition in every field of physics (mechanics, optics, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, etc.). This book is great because it's broken into small digestible sections that build your knowledge as you solve more of the questions (solutions are given).
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Good luck!
I'm not sure I understand your concern, but if you struggle with math, it may help to start with coding. It can make things a little more concrete. You might try code academy, a coding bootcamp, or MIT open courseware.
An Emory prof has a great intro stats course online: https://www.youtube.com/user/RenegadeThinking
Linear algebra is the foundation of the most widely used branch of stats. This book teaches it by coding example. It's full of interesting practical applications (there's a coursera course to go with it): https://www.amazon.com/Coding-Matrix-Algebra-Applications-Computer/dp/0615880991/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1469533241&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=coding+the+matrix
Once you start to feel comfortable, this book offers a great (albeit dense) introduction to mathematics. It used to be used in freshman gen ed math courses, but sadly, American unis decided that actually doing math/logic isn't a priority anymore: https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Ideas-Methods/dp/0195105192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1469533516&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=what+is+mathematics
"What is Mathematics ? An elementary approach to Ideas and methods ( 2nd Edition) by Richard Courant (Author), Herbert Robbins (Author), Ian Stewart (Editor) "
Try this book for help with understanding Algebra. My uncle had left a copy at my grandparents house, and I picked it up when I was there when I was in the third grade (we were working on multiplication and division). I made a perfect score in the state tests for Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, and Trigonometry.
I read this book in high school, and it really helped me figure out how to think about breaking down more complex problems.
This book made math very clear for me as well.
I think these books may help you because you could do the math he read to you. These books helps give you an understanding of what is actually happening. Foe example, most people do not understand that multiplication is nothing more than extended addition, until you explain it to them. If you can think about the problems and understand what the problem is saying, it will be easier to figure out. I did a lot of math in my head that would have taken several pages to write it out the way I did it, but if you wrote it the way they expect would only take a few lines.
I am very happy for you for finally finding someone who knew what was going on with you. I had a similar problem in elementary school, but my parents did not trust the school and had me tested on their own. They decided that I had a "social communication disorder, kind of like a really weak autism" (This is what my parents ended up telling me anyway). The school thought I was "developmentally challenged" ("borderline retarded" was the phrase that was bandied about) but when my parents had my IQ tested, it was a 141, which is not quite what was expected, they decided that the problems were elsewhere.
One thing that is very important in math is that if you do not understand, you can go back and work on fundamentals and build up your foundation, and the more advanced stuff will be easier.
Good luck, and I believe you really are an adept writer. What you wrote grabbed my interest and was compelling.
Try What is Mathematics?, by Courant & Robbins. It's a good overview of mathematics beyond the elementary level you've completed. Another good book like that is Geometry and the Imagination, by Hilbert & Cohn-Vesson.
This is closer to ELI15 (high school geometry) but should help you out I hope.
a good lay discussion of the holographic principle is included in leonard susskind's The Black Hole War
but I'll reproduce some of the explanation here: basically there is a principle in some string theories (and believed necessary to quantum gravity) that states that a total description of a volume (3 dimensional space) can be thought of as encoded on the surface of the volume of that space. This was first noted around 1978, so it's not a new theory.
A volume can't be more complicated than the amount of information (entropy) that can be written to the surface of the volume.
If a volume becomes too complex for its description to fit on its surface area, then the volume will grow until it does (see black holes).
In the strongest form of this principle, this isn't just a mathematical constraint on volume complexity but an actual property of reality: everything apparently going on within a volume is the result of a projection from the surface surrounding it, and properties of 3D space (such as being 3D) or having gravity are emergent in the way that "holographic" projections are in optical illusions, and only occur at low energies and macroscopic scales.
This was inspired by black hole thermodynamics which is why there is a lay discussion in the book I mentioned above.
This is the theory OP is looking for.
Or read this book :
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-War-Stephen-Mechanics/dp/0316016411
The Black Hole War by Leondard Susskind covers all this.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-War-Stephen-Mechanics/dp/0316016411
Einstein: His Life and Universe
The Black Hole War
The Trouble With Physics
Parallel Worlds
The Red Limit: The Search for the Edge of the Universe
Warped Passages
The Singularity is Near
Time is technically a dimension, but it's a dimension which is only relative because we chose the speed of light to be our constant. It makes the math easier. The idea of multiple dimensions beyond the fourth is again exactly that - something to make the math easier. The more you study the various models for quantum mechanics or relativity, the more you realize that each model does one thing well...and that it does everything else poorly.
I understand that your premise is that you believe we can imagine the difference between n and n+1 dimensional experiences for values of n <= 3, and you want to expand that to n > 3 to include a model for God's experience with creation, but it just doesn't work that way. It's an interesting thing to do if you're writing a physics text for the greater population. It's like when Susskind wrote this book and included the bit about black holes being a hologram whose event horizon was determined by the amount of information unretrievable (since his whole point is that no info is lost), and that the surface area of the event horizon is equal to the number of bits of information contained in the black hole if you assume that the Planck length is the smallest surface area capable of containing the bit.
That leads to the model of the event horizon and black holes where the information is correctly encoded on the event horizon, and that as energy is given off by the black hole the event horizon decreases by a corresponding area to represent the information ejected by the radiation.
He then makes the fantastic leap of conjecturing that perhaps the entire observable universe is a giant black hole and we live inside it...which would make all of us holograms projected onto the inside of the black hole from our bits of information encoded on the event horizon...which to us is the boundaries of our known universe/singularity.
It's an interesting idea, but to take that idea (or the n+1 analogy of dimensional analysis you're doing with time) and apply it to the theology of a very real and non-theoretical God would be to misunderstand the limitations of our model, and to unjustly limit God to the rules and limits He placed on the observable universe.
You'll forgive me for ignoring the "symmetric bilinear form" but even the wikipedia article references it as a generalization and not to be correctly used without additional terms in any practical application...like explaining the nature of God.
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345331354/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1321641323&amp;sr=1-1
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. The writing is so good you won't care about the squeamish content.
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum. A perfect blend of a historical retelling and science.
A Treasury of Deception by Michael Farguhar.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks. Short stories of the mentally abnormal patients of Sacks.
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Taylor. Very good insight on what it is like to live with, and recover from brain damage. Also talks science about parts of the brain as a nice intro to the subject.
Mutants: On Genetic Variety in the Human Body by Armand Leroi.
And of course,
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
I'm assuming you're looking for things geared toward a layman audience, and not textbooks. Here's a few of my personal favorites:
Sagan
Cosmos: You probably know what this is. If not, it is at once a history of science, an overview of the major paradigms of scientific investigation (with some considerable detail), and a discussion of the role of science in the development of human society and the role of humanity in the larger cosmos.
Pale Blue Dot: Similar themes, but with a more specifically astronomical focus.
Dawkins
The Greatest Show on Earth: Dawkins steers (mostly) clear of religious talk here, and sticks to what he really does best: lays out the ideas behind evolution in a manner that is easily digestible, but also highly detailed with a plethora of real-world evidence, and convincing to anyone with even a modicum of willingness to listen.
Hofstadter
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: It seems like I find myself recommending this book at least once a month, but it really does deserve it. It not only lays out an excruciatingly complex argument (Godel's Incompleteness Theorem) in as accessible a way as can be imagined, and explores its consequences in mathematics, computer science, and neuroscience, but is also probably the most entertainingly and clearly written work of non-fiction I've ever encountered.
Feynman
The Feynman Lectures on Physics: It's everything. Probably the most detailed discussion of physics concepts that you'll find on this list.
Burke
Connections: Not exactly what you were asking for, but I love it, so you might too. James Burke traces the history of a dozen or so modern inventions, from ancient times all the way up to the present. Focuses on the unpredictability of technological advancement, and how new developments in one area often unlock advancements in a seemingly separate discipline. There is also a documentary series that goes along with it, which I'd probably recommend over the book. James Burke is a tremendously charismatic narrator and it's one of the best few documentary series I've ever watched. It's available semi-officially on Youtube.
http://www.amazon.com/Genome-Autobiography-Species-23-Chapters/dp/0060194979
http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171
http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0684818868
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345331354
I think pockets of extreme ingenuity were present in certain places, Asimov has some great non fiction books that explore the nature of these types of discoveries and sciences... Its a look at human intuition, ill post links when I get home!
Edit: As promised, here is the link to the Asimov book: The Edge of Tomorrow. It's a great book that combines non-fiction stories and science-fiction stories to stir the imagination and provide a framework as to how/why humans and their intuition lead to the amazing fantasies in science-fiction (which often lead the way for future discoveries).
Another great book to read is Carl Segans: The Cosmos, I know the TV series was wicked awesome (and inspired a generation of great scientists) but the book is that much better... being able to break down the math and explore core concepts in much more depth is very eye opening. The book is written in a way that the technical information provided can be figured out by a lay person while not losing to much of the concepts in the translation.
I've always heard good things about Edgar Rice Burrough's The Land that Time Forgot though I've sadly never read it myself. And, hey, it's free!
As far as science non-fiction, I consider A Short History of Nearly Everything to be absolutely essential since it covers so very much in a tremendously entertaining way. Also, if you are interested in physics but don't have any background in it I recommend any of Michio Kaku's books such as his latest Physics of the Future. He writes in an accessible manner that distills all the things that make the ongoing developments in physics exciting. I credit reading his books many years ago with getting me started in the sciences. Lastly, for learning about the universe, you can never go far wrong with Carl Sagan's Cosmos. It is easy to see from reading it why he is considered one of the greatest of the science popularizers.
Here's a quote from Carl Sagan's Cosmos:
> There is the deep and appealing notion that the universe is but a dream of the god who, after a hundred Brahma years, dissolves himself into a dreamless sleep. The universe dissolves with him - until, after another Brahma century, he stirs, recomposes himself and begins again to dream the cosmic dream.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, there are an infinite number of universes, each with its own god dreaming the cosmic dream. These great ideas are tempered by another, perhaps greater. It is said that men may not be the dreams of gods, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men.
You might also find The Conscious Universe: Brahma's Dream interesting. The author discussed Hindu timescales.
These might interest you:
Poincare's Prize
Prime Obsession
Fermat's Enigma
The Code Book
I looked at the free pages on Amazon and it does seem a bit wordier than the physics books I remember. It could just be the chapter. Maybe it reads like a book; maybe it's incredibly boring :/
If money isn't an issue (or if you're resourceful and internet savvy ;) you can try the book by Serway & Jewett. It's fairly common.
http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Scientists-Engineers-Raymond-Serway/dp/1133947271
As for DE, this book really resonated with me for whatever reason. Your results may vary.
http://www.amazon.com/Course-Differential-Equations-Modeling-Applications/dp/1111827052/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372632638&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=differential+equations+gill
If your issue is with the technical nature of textbooks in general, then you'll either have to deal with it or look for some books that simplify/summarize the material in some way. The only example I can come up with is:
http://www.amazon.com/Div-Grad-Curl-All-That/dp/0393925161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372632816&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=div+grad+curl
Although Div, Grad, Curl, and all That is intended for students in an Electromagnetics course (not Physics 2), it might be helpful. It's an informal overview of Calculus 3 integrals and techniques. The book uses electromagnetism in its examples. I don't think it covers electric circuits, which are a mess of their own. However, there are tons of resources on the internet for circuits. I hope all this was helpful :)
Div Grad Curl and all that
The Art of Electronics
Are you familiar with Div, Grad, Curl, & All That. If not you'd probably enjoy it.
let me give you a shortcut.
You want to know how partial derivatives work? Consider a function with two variables: f(x,y) = x^2 y^3, for a simple example.
here's what you do. Let's take the partial derivative with respect to x. What you do, is you consider all the other variables to be constant, and just take the standard derivative with respect to x. In this case, the partial derivative with respect to x is: 2xy^3. That's it, it's really that easy.
What about taking with respect to y? Same thing, now x is constant, and your answer is 3x^2 y^2.
This is an incredibly deep topic, but getting enough of an understanding to tackle gradient descent is really pretty simple. If you want to full on jump in though and get some exposure to way more than you need, check out div curl and grad and all that. It covers a lot, including a fair amount that you won't need for any ML algorithm I've ever seen (curl, divergence theorem, etc) but the intro section on the gradient at the beginning might be helpful... maybe see if you can find a pdf or something. There's probably other good intros too, but seriously... the mechanics of actually performing a partial derivative really are that easy. If you can do a derivative in one dimension, you can handle partial derivatives.
edit: I misread, didn't see you were a junior in highschool. Disregard div curl grad and all that, I highly recommend it, but you should be up through calc 3 and linear algebra first.
To change my advice to be slightly more relevant, learn how normal derivatives work. Go through the Kahn Academy calc stuff if the format appeals to you. Doesn't matter what course you go through though, you just need to go through a few dozen exercises (or a few hundred, depending on your patience and interest) and you'll get there. Derivatives aren't too complicated really, if you understand the limit definition of the derivative (taking the slope over a vanishingly small interval) then the rest is just learning special cases. How do you take the derivative of f(x)g(x)? f(g(x))? There's really not too many rules, so just spend a while practicing and you'll be right where you need to be. Once you're there, going up to understanding partial derivatives is as simple as I described above... if you can take a standard derivative, you can take a partial derivative.
Also: props for wading into the deep end yourself! I know some of this stuff might seem intimidating, but if you do what you're doing (make sure you understand as much as you can instead of blowing ahead) you'll be able to follow this trail as far as you want to go. Good luck, and feel free to hit me up if you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to share.
A great book for eastern/central North America https://smile.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1473869143&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=wild+edibles
I'm a lonely guy too, I like to study stuff. This summer I bought Peterson's Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, I walk around deep in the woods/swamps/trails, and bring home good eats. It sounds lame, but it's peaceful and I have a better appreciation for nature.
This is a good one.
I know the university I'm headed to is using University Physics. I have a PDF of it, if you want it. It basically covers all the fundamental physics using calculus, so I would definitely regard it as a post-IB book.
I've heard many say that Resnick and Halliday's books are the best out there. They are perhaps a bit old, but seem to be the favorite among undergraduates.
If you want a more intuitive understanding of physics, then The Feynman Lectures are a must. He covers some material that requires knowledge of undergraduate level physics, but a lot of it I've found to still be enlightening. The intuition you'll get is invaluable.
For introductory physics, I think it's also well worth mentioning The Feynman Lectures on Physics which I think are widely regarded as great reading for any physicist, for example.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Its a must read!
I think you posted something similar in the math thread right? Introductory physics is really just math and being able to plug into formulas. I'd say it'd be best to get a good math foundation before tackling physics (especially calculus). As far as book recommendations ... I Googled and found a very comprehensive list ( http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Administrivia/booklist.html).
There should be tons of stuff on Khan Academy or on YouTube for particular subjects. Sometimes this may be even more useful than just studying a book as both math and physics books can be dense. I guess I should just list the books I have. Maybe you'll find them useful. I'll list my physics and math books separately.
In general, the Feynmann lectures are considered to be like the physics bible. You can buy a hardcover boxed set of these lectures here: http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-boxed-set/dp/0465023827/ref=asap_B000AQ47U8_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1413342403&amp;sr=1-1. Be forewarned that the lectures were intended for physics students, so it may be best to read a general physics textbook first.
Math (in no particular order):
-Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Greenberg
-Calculus: Early Transcendentals Multivariable by James and Stewart
-Thomas' Calculus Early Transcendentals (Single Variable) by Weir and Hass
-Linear Algebra and its Applications by Lay
-Differential Equations: Computing and Modeling by Edwards and Penney
-Mathematical Proofs: A Transition to Advanced Mathematics by Chartrand, Polimeni and Zhang
-A First Course in Partial Differential Equations with Complex Variables and Transform Methods by Weinberger
Physics (in no particular order):
-Intro to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths
-University Physics by Young and Freedman (prob a good starting place)
-Spacetime Physics by Taylor and Wheeler
-Analytical Mechanics by Fowles and Cassiday
-Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker
-Intro to Electrodynamics by Griffiths
-Heat and Thermodynamics by Zemansky and Dittman
-Statistical and Thermal Physics by Gould and Tobochnik
I hope this was helpful! If not, the physics subreddit has a dedicated thread each week to learning materials and I'm sure someone over there would be glad to help you.
I got the new millennium edition. While I was researching which one to get , a lot of people mentioned that millenium edition was glossy and had smaller print which made it harder to read. I must say it looks fine. I don't have any problems so far. The reason i picked the latest is because it was relatively cheaper (140ish vs 300+) and had over 900 erratas fixed with respect to older editions.
Bonus: Another book I started reading in tandem is Road to Reality by Penrose which is equivalent in excitement, inspiration and quality of material and gives a nice overview of math required for physics and relation between math and physics. Highly recommend.
I like Algebra and Trigonometry by I.M. Gelfand. They are cheap books too.
I also have scans of them, PM me if you want to check them out.
Edit:
Also, Khan Academy is great resource for explanations. But I would recommend aiding Khan Academy with a text just for the problem set and solutions.
Anyone here read The Cosmic Serpent? Documented strangeness which validates what people here are saying.
I've randonauted a few times and found it worthwhile as a way to uncover some insights into my psyche. Same for dreaming. Last night I dreamt I was the new owner of a pet store. Workers were showing me the ropes. They said I had to open the store at 6 a.m. so I could open the drapes. Then they showed me a bunch of other stuff like making dog prints of their poop. And something about a parrot wherein I was advised to wear gloves because they can bite. Lots to unpack here...
Good book on the subject from an anthropological point of view, The Cosmic Serpent. It gets a little out there at points, but quite honestly I had a similar experience to the author. http://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642
It actually comes from a book called The Cosmic Serpent
https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642
The idea of significant figures is a simplification of error analysis. It doesn't produce perfect results, as you've found in your example. It's useful as a simple rule of thumb, especially for students, but any proper analysis would use real error analysis. Your approach of looking at the range of possible values is good, and is basically the next level of complexity after sig figs.
The problem with error analysis is that it's a bit of a bottomless rabbit-hole in terms of complexity: you can make things very complicated very quickly if you try to do things as accurately as possible (for example: the extreme values in your range of possible times are less likely than the central values, and since your using the inverse of the time, that produces a non-uniform distribution in the velocities. Computing the actual probability distribution is a proper pain in the ass).
My advice is this: if you're a highschool student or non-physics university student, stick to sig-figs: it's not perfect, but it's good enough for the sorts of problems you'll be working with. If you're a physics major, you should learn some basic error analysis from your lab courses. If you're really interested in learning to do it properly, I think the most common textbook is the 'Introduction to Error Analysis' by Taylor.
We used this in my undergrad Experimental Physics course: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Error-Analysis-Uncertainties-Measurements/dp/093570275X
Are you interested in systematic errors, random errors, or both? Ignoring systematic errors, with the information that you've given, here are the obvious things to consider:
For each of the items above, you can determine the uncertainties with a simple design-of-experiments. For validated instrumentation, the uncertainties will be specified as part of the IQ/OQ/PQ process, but even so, you should still verify them yourself.
Once you have these values, calculating how each of them contribute to the final error is relatively straightforward using principles of error propagation. There are many books and websites devoted to the topic of error propagation. I have a copy of John Taylor's book, which I like. It does have a significant number of errors in the book because it contains so many equations and works them out in detail. However, the principles of error propagation are taught very well in the book, and the minor math errors (I know it's ironic) are easy to spot.
In fact, it is possible to give error bars from one exact measurement. For example, let's say I count how many rain drops hit my hand in 5 seconds and the result is 25. The number of rain drops striking my hand in a given length of time will form a Poisson distribution. One can argue that based on my one measurement, the best estimate I can make of the true rate of rain striking my hand each 5 seconds is 25 +/- sqrt(25) = 25 +/- 5.
As you might intuit, the uncertainty of the mean number of drops striking my hand will decrease as more measurements are taken. This tends to drop like 1/Sqrt(N), where N is the number of 5-second raindrop measurements I make.
This style of problem is very standard in any introductory statistics textbook, but I can give you a particular book if you'd like to look into it further:
An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements by John R. Taylor
These plots are "distributions" in the sense that I meant the word distribution. Distributions are simply a collection of values placed side by side. When you arrange each month's datapoint side by side, that's a distribution.
It’s the cover of one of my favorite books I used in college. I still keep it on my desk. Error Analysis by John Taylor
An Introduction to Error Analysis by John R. Taylor is the text that undergrads at UC Berkeley use. It's pretty decent.
As an aside, I think that the undergraduate sequence at most schools does a terrible job of teaching about uncertainty and error analysis. I'm a PhD candidate at Berkeley (graduating in December!), and my dissertation involves high precision measurements that test the Standard Model. Thus, analyzing sources uncertainty is my bread and butter. I really appreciate how approximations, models, and measurement precision are interrelated.
I'm really curious to see what resources other people put here.
Honestly, if you are willing to spend a bit of money, David Klein's Organic Chemistry as a Second Language is concise, fun to read, and gives a deep understanding of orgo. I highly recommend it, and it was a huge help to me when I took it. You may want to start with the first and buy the second if the first appeals to you.
Semester 1
Semester 2
Flashcards. Reaction on the front, mechanism on the back.
*If that doesn't work, this book saved my life in undergrad.
I took Ochem I and II, and I remember my professor recommending "Organic Chemistry as a Second Language," by Klein: http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/111801040X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1457564400&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=organic+chemistry+as+a+second+language
Note that there are separate versions for Ochem I and II.
Which one are you taking? Is it the only class you are having trouble with?
Just finished my first semester of o chem! A few tips:
In terms of the actual class...
Good luck!
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/111801040X
Buy it
I've found David Klein's Organic Chemistry as a Second Language to be an indispensable resource.
I used the second edition, but I would imagine the third is still up to par.
I wonder how many people in this thread would enjoy reading Robert Zubrin's work. He laid out a solid plan over 2 decades ago with existing tech. for those interested
In Rubert Zurbin's excellent 1996 book The Case For Mars, he describes the Mars Direct plan which places a small nuclear reactor (does not say what type) capable of 100 kilowatts and lowers it into a crater or natural depression. This powers the chemical plant to produce fuel for the trip back.
To my mind, this seems to be the easiest solution; many small reactors. Portable with a rover, you can set up perimeter/remote bases that are not limited by umbilical cord length. If one has a problem, you still have capacity in the others.
I would also expect a few small RTGs laying about as well. Though an RTG is fairly inefficient for producing electricity, they are simple, dependable, and long-lived. The radioactivity is obviously a concern, but not insurmountable. Also, Mars is cold and a lot of energy will be needed for heat, and the RTG's waste heat can tapped directly without inefficient conversions.
Gracias!
No, el de Feynman es biográfico, basado en grabaciones que hizo un cuate de él. Es excelente. Acaba de salir una versión en novela gráfica que se llama Feynman.
Para divulgación de Feynman ahorita estoy leyendo uno que se llama Six Easy Pieces, que es un extracto para mensos de sus famosas lecturas de física.
Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman
I'm a science noob and I was told this is a good layman-introductory book. Fingers crossed people haven't read this already.
Feynman.
Anything you can find on him. "The Feynman Lectures on Physics" is a brilliant introduction. It is aimed at college level but there's a significant portion of general audience material. A book was written that is a subset of the Feynman lectures that concentrates on the non-mathematical (which apparently means "easy") parts.Edit: Okay, perhaps not anything you can find.
Given that Daniel Dennett has recently published a book on thought experiments called Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, I thought it would be good to show one of Dennett's most famous intuition pumps.
This section of the movie is based on Daniel Dennett's though experiment first published in Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology and reprinted in his famous compendium with Douglas Hofstadter, The Mind's I.
The original paper is available here and elsewhere online.
The movie itself is a documentary and dramatization of several themes in the book The Mind's I and includes an interview with Douglas Hofstadter earlier on.
Although this sort of historical approach may work for some people, and it will definitely give you a very good background, it certainly didn't work for me. I wanted to get ideas that were articulated in easy to understand contemporary terms that I could grapple with right away without having to worry about interpreting them correctly first.
I started in early high school, after being recommended by a friend who was majoring in philosophy at the time with The Philosophy Gym by Stephen Law which gave a great and really readable introduction to a lot of philosophy problems. Depending on your previous knowledge of philosophy, it might be a bit basic, but even still it's a worthwhile read I think.
From then, I went on The Mind's I by Daniel Dennett and Douglass Hofstadter, which was a really good and fun introduction to philosophy of mind and related issues. After that I think you'll have enough exposure to dive into various subjects and authors that you come across.
You might find some inspiration in this David Chalmers' interview. It's a success story of a math whiz who would, late in his education, switch to philosophy.
>It had always seemed my destiny to be a mathematician and for the most part I didn't question it. I've always loved computers and I suppose the obvious alternative was something in that area.... I did keep thinking about philosophical problems, though mostly for fun on the side rather than as a serious career possibility.
>
>...I had still hardly read any analytic philosophy. I had come across a few things in Hofstadter and Dennett's collection The Mind's I -- notably Dennett's "Where am I?", which I loved, Searle's "Minds, Brains, and Programs,” which was interesting and infuriating, and Nagel's "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?,” which I found difficult to read but which must have had some influence. Later on that year I encountered Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons, which I loved and gave me a sense of how powerful analytic philosophy can be when done clearly and accessibly. I also read Pat Churchland's Neurophilosophy, which gave a nice overview of contemporary philosophy of mind as well as neuroscience, and provided a lot to disagree with.
>
>Around this point I thought that I needed a proper education in philosophy, and I started thinking seriously about switching programs...
You might consider advice from Eric Schwitzgebel regarding MA/PhD:
> Some, including very good, PhD programs will consider non-philosophy majors if they have strong undergraduate records and have background in areas related to philosophy, for example, math, linguistics or psychology. However, even if a PhD program is willing to consider such students, it is often difficult for them to evaluate the student’s philosophical abilities from their undergrad records, letters, etc.
>
>In general, I think it most advisable for students who fall into this first category to consider seriously the MA route.
The important part of this question is what do you know? By saying you're looking to learn "a little more about econometrics," does that imply you've already taken an undergraduate economics course? I'll take this as a given if you've found /r/econometrics. So this is a bit of a look into what a first year PhD section of econometrics looks like.
My 1st year PhD track has used
-Casella & Berger for probability theory, understanding data generating processes, basic MLE, etc.
-Greene and Hayashi for Cross Sectional analysis.
-Enders and Hamilton for Time Series analysis.
These offer a more mathematical treatment of topics taught in say, Stock & Watson, or Woodridge's Introductory Econometrics. C&B will focus more on probability theory without bogging you down in measure theory, which will give you a working knowledge of probability theory required for 99% of applied problems. Hayashi or Greene will mostly cover what you see in an undergraduate class (especially Greene, which is a go to reference). Hayashi focuses a bit more on general method of moments, but I find its exposition better than Greene. And I honestly haven't looked at Enders or Hamilton yet, but they will cover forecasting, auto-regressive moving average problems, and how to solve them with econometrics.
It might also be useful to download and practice with either R, a statistical programming language, or Python with the numpy library. Python is a very general programming language that's easy to work with, and numpy turns it into a powerful mathematical and statistical work horse similar to Matlab.
I was an Actuary (so I took the Financial Engineering exams) before I went back to get my PhD in Statistics. If you're familiar with:
You should be fine in a PhD stats program. It's easy enough to learn the statistics but harder to learn the math (specifically you're going to want strong analysis and calculus skills).
Check out Statistical Inference - Casella & Berger it's a pretty standard 1st year theory text in Statistics, flip through the book and see how challenging the material looks to you. If it seems reasonable (don't expect to know it -- this is stuff you're going to learn!) then you ought to be fine.
This is a classic. I took a grad level course with this textbook and every problem is nasty. But yes, it is really a classic.
Also, I just begun Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models by Andrew Gelman and Jennifer Hill. Love his interpretation of linear regression. Linear regression might sound like basics, but it lays the foundation work for everything else and from time to time I feel compelled to review it. This book gave me a new way to look at a familiar topic.
If you are familiar with any statistical programming language/packages, I would highly suggest you implement the learnings from any books you have.
Beginner Resources: These are fantastic places to start for true beginners.
Introduction to Probability is an oldie but a goodie. This is a basic book about probability that is suited for the absolute beginner. Its written in an older style of english, but other than that it is a great place to start.
Bayes Rule is a really simple, really basic book that shows only the most basic ideas of bayesian stats. If you are completely unfamiliar with stats but have a basic understanding of probability, this book is pretty good.
A Modern Approach to Regression with R is a great first resource for someone who understands a little about probability but wants to learn more about the details of data analysis.
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Advanced resources: These are comprehensive, quality, and what I used for a stats MS.
Statistical Inference by Casella and Berger (2nd ed) is a classic text on maximum likelihood, probability, sufficiency, large sample properties, etc. Its what I used for all of my graduate probability and inference classes. Its not really beginner friendly and sometimes goes into too much detail, but its a really high quality resource.
Bayesian Data Analysis (3rd ed) is a really nice resource/reference for bayesian analysis. It isn't a "cuddle up by a fire" type of book since it is really detailed, but almost any topic in bayesian analysis will be there. Although its not needed, a good grasp on topics in the first book will greatly enhance the reading experience.
You received A's in your math classes at a major public university, so I think you're in pretty good shape. That being said, have you done proof-based math? That may help tremendously in giving intuition because with proofs, you are giving rigor to all the logic/theorems/ formulas, etc that you've seen in your previous math classes.
Statistics will become very important in machine learning. So, a proof-based statistics book, that has been frequently recommended by /r/math and /r/statistics is Statistical Inference by Casella & Berger: https://www.amazon.com/Statistical-Inference-George-Casella/dp/0534243126
I've never read it myself, but skimming through some of the beginning chapters, it seems pretty solid. That being said, you should have an intro to proof-course if you haven't had that. A good book for starting proofs is How to Prove It: https://www.amazon.com/How-Prove-Structured-Approach-2nd/dp/0521675995
See Casella and Berger chapter 2, theorem 2.1.5
Casella and Berger is one of the go-to references. It is at the advanced undergraduate/first year graduate student level. It's more classical statistics than data science, though.
Good statistical texts for data science are Introduction to Statistical Learning and the more advanced Elements of Statistical Learning. Both of these have free pdfs available.
The Ancestors Tale
Dawkins gets a lot of hate, but the man knows his evolutionary biology and he can write! This is a great read, and a good overview of human ancestry, and if you're interested in the finer details of natural selection, follow it up with The Selfish Gene.
If you aren't interested in the actual biology of how species branch and evolve into other species I'd suggest Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale. It will give you the grand overview of life on Earth.
It doesn't deal with the Big Bang directly, but Krauss' Atom will take you on a single oxygen atom's journey from the Big Bang to its inclusion in earlier generations of stars and on to how it gets used here on Earth.
Similar to "Your Inner Fish", I'd also recommend The Ancestors Tale its rather long, but written in ELI5.
OK, folks may call me a nut, but you might want to try Evolution by Loxton. It's for younger readers, but you could literally jumpstart yourself in an hour.
Then, read Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne as well as The Greatest Show on Earth by Dawkins.
Honorable mention goes to Dawkins' An Ancestor's Tale.
Take lots of classes and keep learning. When I was in high school, things like ecology and wildlife biology were appealing to me because I understood what plants, animals, and ecosystems were, but I had no idea what a ribosome or a micro-RNA really were. I found that the more I learned about molecular and cell biology, the more fascinated I became by these tiny little machines that power every living thing. I started taking neuroscience classes because brains are cool; I ended up getting a PhD in neuroscience with a very cellular/molecular focus to my research (my whole dissertation was on one gene/protein that can cause a rare human genetic disorder).
Get some experience working in a lab. Until you've spent time in that environment it's hard to know whether you'll like it. And as others have mentioned, population biology and evolutionary genetics can combine some aspects of field work and molecular lab work, so those might be areas to investigate.
Want some books? Try The Beak of the Finch and Time, Love, Memory. The first is focused on experimental validation of evolutionary theory (involving lots of field work), the second is about the history of behavioral genetics in fruit flies. Both were assigned or suggested reading in my college biology classes.
Good luck, and stay curious!
No you're absolutely right. It's definitely something to be aware of. Probably a shit comment to make and I don't feel that great about it. But, ah well. I said it. Maybe I'm a superior asshole. I don't think so. But we'll not strike it from the record, your honor. lol. It can be a fair point though, depending on circumstance or individual experience.
Guess it's just hard for me to really understand someone considering themselves "intelligent", who voted for Trump, who also proudly proclaims their "disbelief" (what is it...a leprechaun?) in things like Global Warming or Evolution. Sorry, but your belief has nothing to do with it. You either understand it or you don't understand that you don't understand it.
Extra Blowhard Thoughts, Stop Reading If Not in the Mood for Some Blowing Hard.
----------------------------------------------------
For everyone who has ever told me they don't believe in Evolution, I've recommended a book I read in my college Evolution class called "The Beak of the Finch" by Jonathan Weiner. Most I've recommended it to that don't "believe", have, unsurprisingly, never given it the time of day. But, I maintain if you read that book, you basically have to come away "believing" or understanding the truth of Evolution. It's a bunch of small, simple facts (i.e., there was less rain this year, we counted and there were fewer smaller seeds produced by plants that don't do well in dry times, hardier drought resistant trees produced more and larger seeds since there were more of those plants since the smaller plants died out in the dry time, we measured the beaks of the finches during this dry year and there was a slight uptick in finches with beaks that were shorter and thicker and with more of an angle on the beak, allowing them to crack larger seeds easier, because the finches with thinner and shorter and less angled beaks died of starvation because they couldn't crack the seeds, therefore more thicker shorter beaked birds were the ones producing offspring, which made for even more birds with similar beak types and on and on) that when taken alone and by themselves are irrefutable.
And once you finish digesting this story of simple fact after simple fact, you realize you've simply read a proof for evolution in a closed environment (the Galapagos) in a short period of time. If at no point did you stop and say "hey wait! That's not true! Those painstaking measurements they did over years and years are made up!" then you just educated yourself on a relatively simple and straightforward proof of evolution. But, most naysayers won't even take the time to read said book, because they're afraid of educating themselves with hard science. Because if you "believe" that when you drop a ball, it hits the ground accelerating at 9.8 m/s^2, then you believe in evolution. If you "believe" that when you flip a switch in your house, the lights come on because of electricity, you believe in Evolution. If you "believe" that when the Doctor gives you an antibiotic and you get better, you believe in Evolution. If you "believe" you were born following the principals of fertilization and genetics, then you believe in evolution. You just simply can't cherry pick science for the parts you want to believe in, the parts that are convenient for your life, and discard other parts that don't fit your world view. Science is a structure supported by every piece that's come before, and you can't pull the Jenga block of evolution out of the bottom but still hop in your combustion engine powered vehicle everyday to drive you around your various bastions of ignorance.
>Can they be shown to be consistent?
Not by the metamathematics itself, no. It's a result from Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems that no consistent mathematical system that can be mapped into arithmetics can demonstrate it's own consistency.
This book does a good job of explaining Gödel's work, you should consider reading it.
For something more rigorous than "Godel, Escher, Bach" try "Godel's Proof" by Nagel and Newman.
There is a book entitled Godel's proof that was written that was written to explain the ideas of Godel's proof without requiring too much background.
http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1342841590&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=godel%27s+proof
It is hard for me to offer to much advice beyond that because I am in a different field of mathematics (number theory).
it's not a bad book but it's got a bad rap
hofstadter writes the foreword to my favorite book on godel's work, this guy
This is the one I read:
http://www.amazon.com/Gödels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371
There are some really good books that you can use to give yourself a solid foundation for further self-study in mathematics. I've used them myself. The great thing about this type of book is that you can just do the exercises from one side of the book to the other and then be confident in the knowledge that you understand the material. It's nice! Here are my recommendations:
First off, three books on the basics of algebra, trigonometry, and functions and graphs. They're all by a guy called Israel Gelfand, and they're good: Algebra, Trigonometry, and Functions and Graphs.
Next, one of two books (they occupy the same niche, material-wise) on general proof and problem-solving methods. These get you in the headspace of constructing proofs, which is really good. As someone with a bachelors in math, it's disheartening to see that proofs are misunderstood and often disliked by students. The whole point of learning and understanding proofs (and reproducing them yourself) is so that you gain an understanding of the why of the problem under consideration, not just the how... Anyways, I'm rambling! Here they are: How To Prove It: A Structured Approach and How To Solve It.
And finally a book which is a little bit more terse than the others, but which serves to reinforce the key concepts: Basic Mathematics.
After that you have the basics needed to take on any math textbook you like really - beginning from the foundational subjects and working your way upwards, of course. For example, if you wanted to improve your linear algebra skills (e.g. suppose you wanted to learn a bit of machine learning) you could just study a textbook like Linear Algebra Done Right.
The hard part about this method is that it takes a lot of practice to get used to learning from a book. But that's also the upside of it because whenever you're studying it, you're really studying it. It's a pretty straightforward process (bar the moments of frustration, of course).
If you have any other questions about learning math, shoot me a PM. :)
All the video sources I'm finding seem... spotty, but Richard Feynman's lectures on physics are the best in my opinion. He starts out with the basic foundations modern physics and progresses into much more difficult territory. They're well written, and definitely a good read for anyone who wants a basic understanding of physics.
I have these copies of his lectures which I like because they split up the easy and the hard topics in to separate books. But this is just personal opinion, and there are many, many copies of his works out there.
15 might be a good age to introduce her to some Dick.
a. Stanford. But a lot of people who work with me did not go to big-name schools. UC Irvine, Iowa State, Oregon state, etc. Where I work, there's lots of UW. Where I used to work before that; lots of RPI and USC.
b. I got great grades in high school, but slipped a little bit in college. (This made my life difficult later. A good GPA makes it easier to be hired, and is practically necessary if you want a Masters, something that many many many engineers have today). Classes: I'm sure I'm not the first one to tell you this, but take all the math and physics you can. And try to learn some of this stuff outside of school (it can be more fun that way), pick up some books, try to get through the Feynman Lectures on Physics (or just Six Easy Pieces and QED to start off), some Martin Gardner, books like Euler's Gem, learn HTML, try your hand at programming, build LEGO robots... all that kind of stuff will make it easier to learn the stuff you need to learn to become an engineer.
"The Mind's I"
Read this. It's a bit long, but includes many very thorough discussions of exactly what you're asking and proposing.
You should read The Mind's I by Dennett and Hofstadter. There are a couple of essays that discuss this very problem, and they pose some interesting questions as to where in the brain the consciousness exists and how you might go about simulating it.
If any of you want to read a very fascinating book on this topic - I suggest:
http://www.amazon.com/Minds-Fantasies-Reflections-Self-Soul/dp/0465030912/
/among others by Hofstadter...
If you're into this kind of stuff, I'd suggest you this:
https://www.amazon.com/Minds-Fantasies-Reflections-Self-Soul/dp/0465030912/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1494269217&amp;sr=1-15&amp;keywords=daniel+dennett
I agree with the other posters who suggested Dennett and Hofstadter... They also collaborated on a book called "The Mind's I"
Another suggestion would be "Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software"
The Republic and Other Works by Plato
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
God's Equation by Amir D. Aczel
The Mind's I by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett
*Shakespeare's Sonnets by Stephen Booth
Forget a Hollywood movie, there are entire philosophical treatises devoted to what Karl cleverly sums up in that one sentence. Here's a good philosophical exploration of it.
> the first half of my degree was heavy on theoretical statistics,
Really? Wow, I'm impressed. Actual coverage of even basic theoretical stats is extremely rare in psych programs. Usually it's a bunch of pronouncements from on high, stated without proof, along with lists of commandments to follow (many of dubious value) and a collection of bogus rules of thumb.
What book(s) did you use? Wasserman? Casella and Berger? Cox and Hinkley? or (since you say it was heavy on theory) something more theoretical than standard theory texts?
I'd note that reaction times (conditionally on the IVs) are unlikely to be close to normal (they'll be right skew), and likely heteroskedastic. I'd be inclined toward generalized linear models (perhaps a gamma model -probably with log-lnk if you have any continuous covariates- would suit reaction times?). And as COOLSerdash mentions, you may want a random effect on subject, which would then imply GLMMs
What is your background?
http://www.amazon.com/Statistical-Inference-George-Casella/dp/0534243126
Is a fairly standard first year grad textbook with I quite enjoy. Gives you a mathematical statistics foundation.
http://www.amazon.com/All-Statistics-Concise-Statistical-Inference/dp/1441923225/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1278495200&amp;sr=1-1
I've heard recommended as an approachable overview.
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Applied-Statistics-W-Venables/dp/1441930086/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1278495315&amp;sr=1-1
Is a standard 'advanced' applied statistics textbook.
http://www.amazon.com/Weighing-Odds-Course-Probability-Statistics/dp/052100618X
Is non-standard but as a mathematician turned probabilist turned statistician I really enjoyed it.
http://www.amazon.com/Statistical-Models-Practice-David-Freedman/dp/0521743850/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Is a book which covers classical statistical models. There's an emphasis on checking model assumptions and seeing what happens when they fail.
This book has a fairly good introduction to probability theory if you don't need it to be measure theoretic. Statistical Inference
Berger and Casella's Statistical Inference is what you need if you want a mathematical approach.
> I more want a good timeline from the primordial ooze to me typing this message.
Dawkins' The Ancestors Tale is exactly the book you want. It starts with present day humans and works backwards, explaining the points at which different branches of species diverged along the evolutionary tree.
Googling for "Dawkins abiogenesis" I found this recommendation:
>> Truant wrote:
Isn't this also mentioned in a chapter in The Selfish Gene, or am I remembering it wrong?
I seem to recall the "simple replicator" idea from there, but I've read so many of the professor's books now that I sometimes get them mixed up... :mrgreen:
> Yes, it is in that book, in chapter 2 'The Replicators'. He gives an excellent overview of OOL research which I believe is still relevant to this day.
----
In the same forum, I also saw The Ancestor's Tale recommended for its treatment of "autocatalysis", and The Blind Watchmaker for its discussion of the "clay" or "crystal" theory of abiogenesis.
The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins
I second the reading idea! Ask your history or science teachers for suggestions of accessible books. I'm going to list some that I found interesting or want to read, and add more as I think of them.
A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. Title explains it all. It is very beginner friendly, and has some very entertaining stories. Bryson is very heavy on the history and it's rather long but you should definitely make every effort to finish it.
Lies my teacher told me
The greatest stories never told (This is a whole series, there are books on Presidents, science, and war as well).
There's a series by Edward Rutherfurd that tells history stories that are loosely based on fact. There are books on London and ancient England, Ireland, Russia, and one on New York
I read this book a while ago and loved it- Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk It's about a monk who was imprisoned for 30 years by the Chinese.
The Grapes of Wrath.
Les Misérables. I linked to the unabridged one on purpose. It's SO WORTH IT. One of my favorite books of all time, and there's a lot of French history in it. It's also the first book that made me bawl at the end.
You'll also want the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Federalist Papers.
I'm not sure what you have covered in history, but you'll definitely want to find stuff on all the major wars, slavery, the Bubonic Plague, the French Revolution, & ancient Greek and Roman history.
As for science, find these two if you have any interest in how the brain works (and they're pretty approachable).
Phantoms in the brain
The man who mistook his wife for a hat
Alex and Me The story of a scientist and the incredibly intelligent parrot she studied.
For a background in evolution, you could go with The ancestor's tale
A biography of Marie Curie
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston is a quick and easy read, and very heavy on the adventure. You'll also want to read his other book The Hot Zone about Ebola. Absolutely fascinating, I couldn't put this one down.
The Devil's Teeth About sharks and the scientists who study them. What's not to like?
> there is no such thing as different species
Exactly, there's not.
Biologists use it as a shortcut, but we've abandoned essentialism. There are no discrete, immutable, groups of animals except when taken as a snapshot in time with our limited view of the past. It can sometimes be useful to use this way of thinking when studying biology, but you must always keep in your mind that it is not the closest model of reality we have access to.
If you're interested, The Ancestor's Tale is a good way to be introduced to this way of thinking.
Richard Dawkin's book The Ancestors' Tale goes in the opposite direction -- from mankind back to the common ancestor of all life -- and tries to estimate the generations along the way. At some point before getting to Amoebas, however, he gives up, because the best approximations are complete guesses. But you could get some insight into your question from that book, I believe.
I don't have my copy on me, and Wikipedia doesn't include his estimates. But check it out! Wikipedia Amazon
Do you have $2.16 you don't mind spending?
Buy this book (and then read it). which will answer that very question.
The Beak of the Finch is a pretty good read.
On earth, most speciation happens within a population that is not physically split up by anything (water, mountains, etc.). In fact, getting split up by some kind of a boundary actually makes it harder for two populations to evolve into different species; there isn't any evolutionary pressure on them to become sexually incompatible.
Most speciation occurs because there are two empty niches within the ecosystem, and a population splits to fill both of them. A really good lay explanation of how this happens can be found in The Beak of the Finch. I highly recommend this book.
A good real-life example of this would be the cichlids of Lake Victoria. When the ancestor of these cichlids first showed up in this lake, there were numerous empty ecological niches, and the descendants of these fish evolved various specializations to compete better against each other.
The thing with specializing, though, is you don't want to breed with a fish of a different specialization, because your babies won't be very specialized, and they'll get outcompeted by fish that are more specialized. For this reason, being a very picky fish—that is, having a strong sexual preference for fish who share your specialization—is a major evolutionary advantage.
And giving off signs to other fish like you, to let them know that you're one of their kind, is also an advantage. This is why the cichlids in Lake Victoria are so amazingly diverse, despite being closely related and living in amongst each other. If you're a blue fish, you know to breed with other blue fish, and not with red fish. If you breed with red fish, your lineage will probably die out, and your preference for red fish will die with it. (Obviously, red fish would evolve the same preference for other red fish and aversion to blue fish.)
Sexual preferences and sexual displays are not the only method animals evolve to avoid interbreeding with a population of a different ecological specialization. Some animals (like frogs and cicadas) evolve to breed at different times of the year from their closely-related neighbors.
And some species (including most plants) do it by merely having incompatible sperm and eggs (or pollen and ova), or by having flowers specialized for different pollinators. If you're an oak that's specialized for growing on a riverbank, for example, you don't want to get pollinated by an oak that's specialized for growing on higher ground, because you'll still drop your hybrid acorns on the riverbank, and they just won't grow as well. You can't stop that oak's pollen from reaching you (oaks are wind pollinated), so the next best thing is to build some kind of protein defense on your ova that stops the highland oak's pollen from working on your ova—but still allows the pollen of your fellow riverbank oaks.
In the case of two your two intelligent species, they need to possess two traits to be realistic.
1 — They need to fulfill different ecological niches. They must not compete directly with each other (only in indirect ways that are not enough for one to drive the other to extinction). They need to live compatibly with each other, not unlike the way wildebeests and zebras do (they don't compete directly with each other because they eat different grass). And, if they were to interbreed, the hybrid children would be at a biological disadvantage to purebred children (e.g., suffering more from malnutrition due to not being specialized for digesting the available foodstuffs, or being more susceptible to predation due to lacking the right equipment to escape or defend against danger).
2 — They need to avoid hybridizing. This can come about through several ways—finding each other sexually distasteful (the way we find chimpanzees unattractive), wooing prospective sexual partners at different times or in different ways, having incompatible gametes or genitalia, etc. There can be a social taboo against interbreeding, too, but it would almost certainly be rooted in biology (much the way that incest taboos are ultimately derived from our instinctual aversion to inbreeding).
Your best bet is to contact the instructor(s) for any classes you're interested in to see if there will be lectures covering material you are uncomfortable with; it would be helpful to be specific (for example, if you're okay with diagrams of organs and tissues but aren't comfortable with images of the actual thing).
That being said, in my experience (4th year graduate student in molecular biology) few classes have been especially graphic. Off the top of my head, the only ones to be careful of are anatomy/physiology (duh :) ) and general bio as there is usually at least one dissection in the lab section (which you might be able to opt out of).
Another option is to explore your interest in biology and evolution outside of coursework. There are quite a few great books out there that discuss the field without being gory. I personally recommend “The Beak of the Finch”, which discusses the decades-long research project tracking finch evolution in the Galapagos. http://www.amazon.com/The-Beak-Finch-Story-Evolution/dp/067973337X
Good luck!
Evolution can happen quickly (not saying it has in this case... just that it can). Pickup http://www.amazon.com/The-Beak-Finch-Story-Evolution/dp/067973337X for an interesting read about fast observable evolution.
Male orangutans grow beautiful facial hair! I'm pretty sure this is just a coincidence, though.
It's not uncommon for two closely related species to sexually select for different traits in their mates, as it helps cut back on interbreeding (read The Beak of the Finch for an excellent example of this). Normally genetic variety is a good thing, but if a lineage diverges because it is specializing in two different niches, interbreeding between the two branches hurts both of them. Perhaps beards—and the sexual preference for them—developed in early humans because it set them apart from their cousins.
The Beak of the Finch is a great non-textbook about evolution to read. Evolutionary Analysis by Freeman and Herron is the text I used in class.
How to Solve It by Polya is a great book about the use of critical thinking in the process of solving mathematics problems.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Mathematical-Princeton-Science/dp/069111966X
I highly recommend Polya's How to Solve it too.
The best advice to get better at solving these problems is to persist. You should have to try, to think, to fail slowly building a picture until you find the solution. Have patience with not knowing exactly what to do.
For more technical general advice Polya's lovely book How to Solve it is excellent.
how to solve it by g. polya
book wiki
book on amazon
George Pólya wiki
Polya's How to Solve It:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-It-Mathematical-Princeton/dp/069111966X
http://math.hawaii.edu/home/pdf/putnam/PolyaHowToSolveIt.pdf
My favorite book on problem solving is Problem Solving Through Problems. There's an online copy, too. (I recommend you print it and get it bound at Kinkos if you intend to seriously work through it, though. This type of thing sucks on a screen.)
How To Solve It is another popular recommendation for that topic. Personally, I only read part of it. It's alright.
I can recommend other stuff if you tell me what level of math you're at, what you're interested in learning, etc.
Two good books:
The process of “doing math” and “programming” are honestly pretty similar. I think a lot of people have math PTSD from grade school.
In both cases, the central activity is developing a way of thinking about a problem that’s precise enough to make forward progress.
The nice thing about math/logic is that you’re completely free to define any structures you want to help you make progress. The hard thing is that there’s no machine there to give you feedback as to whether you’re on the right track.
What's Math Got to Do With It?
How to Solve It
Check out "How to Solve It" It's a small book but well worth the price. It talks about how to think critically and creatively go about solving problems.
I'm a former physicists The way I felt I got smarter over the years as an undergraduate and graduate student was by continuing to solve hard and harder math and physics problems. Throwing yourself at increasingly difficult problems forces you to think systematically (so that you aren't considering the same solution again and again) and creatively (bring in other concepts and apply them to new situations) and perhaps, most importantly, to not give up. I found myself just being able to solve technical problems in other areas faster. My brain naturally got faster just like how someone who continually runs a slightly greater distances or just a little bit faster everyday is going to just naturally develop the muscles to make that possible. Also having a repository of solved problems as reference helps you solve future problems.
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I found this book useful for problem solving:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Mathematical-Princeton-Science/dp/069111966X
this book is quite short but perfect for an aspiring mathematician that is going to start hearing about Gödel's proof in casual conversation. This provides a concise easy treatment of it's importance and how the proof works. Also, see it's reviews on goodreads
I was totally enthralled with the philosophy of Mathematics when I was in college. One of the books I found interesting -- before I had progressed in mathematical logic -- was this one on Godel's Proof.
Gödel's Proof is a good starting point for the incompleteness theorem. Covers the basics of the theorem and its impacts. Unless you are prepping for coursework in logic than this book likely has the right amount of depth for you.
I don't have a recommendation for Tarski. Hopefully someone else has something for you.
160 pages:
https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486067268&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=godels+proof
https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371
Book recommendation for an intro to Godel's Theorem: Gödel's Proof - Ernest Nagel and James Newman. Well written, concise and requires no prior mathematical knowledge.
Edit: Never mind. misread "I do have an introductory understanding..." as "I don't have an introductory understanding...". Still a good recommendation for anyone else who is interested!
Agree. I picked up on that from the intro to GEB, stopped reading GEB, and decided to get a better understanding of Gödel's proof by reading the book Hofstadter says introduced him to Gödel - Gödel's Proof, by Ernest Nagel and James R. Newman. I recommend it as a very approachable introduction to Gödel's incompleteness theorems. Even now I can recall moments reading that little book where I'd get a big smile on my face as the force of his argument and conclusion would bear down on me. What Gödel did is nothing short of mind blowing.
After that, if you want more, then go to Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems by Raymond M. Smullyan (You'll want to buy this one used). This one is a much more technical, though still approachable if you're prepared at an undergrad level, guide through to Gödel's conclusions. You should go into it with an undergrad level of fluency in propositional and predicate logic.
You can read GEB without all that, certainly without the second book, but I've found it a better experience having more familiarity with Gödel as I work through it.
Highly recommend Godel's Proof for anybody looking to jump into the question of how well founded modern mathematics is.
Try to find entry points that interest you personally, and from there the next steps will be natural. Most books that get into the nitty-gritty assume you're in school for it and not directly motivated, at least up to early university level, so this is harder than it should be. But a few suggestions aimed at the self-motivated: Lockhart Measurement, Gelfand Algebra, 3blue1brown's videos, Calculus Made Easy, Courant & Robbins What Is Mathematics?. (I guess the last one's a bit tougher to get into.)
For physics, Thinking Physics seems great, based on the first quarter or so (as far as I've read).
I usually recommend Lang's Basic Mathematics for those wanting to go over or learn the necessary math before calculus. It covers everything you need and more in a nice fashion that is much better than any book in highschool you may have ever used. Another option is to pick up the series of books by I.M. Gelfand, which are split up in to algebra, coordinate graphs, functions, and trigonometry (i think it's only 4). The advantage here is that each book is small so you can digest it in chunks (plus they are Dover books now so they can be had for cheap). Both of these authors will both prepare and place you beyond your class for Math1050. If you've read and done the questions in these books, you will be more than ready. Personally, I like to not move on in material until I finally understand it or at least can decently explain what was covered to someone. So the time it takes to read these books will vary but I say it is feasible to cover a chapter a week more or less.
If you need to brush up on some of the more basic topics, there's a series of books by IM Gelfand:
Algebra
Trigonometry
Functions and Graphs
The Method of Coordinates
I just bought this, and I'm waiting for it to be shipped. I heard it is life-changing.
This may not exactly be an answer to your question but I would recommend buying this book: https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Ideas-Methods/dp/0195105192
It's not quite a textbook nor it is a pop-sci book for the layperson. The blurb on the front says " "A lucid representation of the fundamental concepts and methods of the whole field of mathematics." - Albert Einstein"
In and of itself it is not a complete curriculum. It doesn't have anything about linear algebra for example but you could learn a lot of mathematics from it. It would be accessible to a reasonably intelligent and interested high-schooler, it touches on a variety of topics you may see in an undergraduate mathematics degree and it is a great introduction to thinking about mathematics in a slightly more creative and rigorous way. In fact I would say this book changed my life and I don't think I'm the only one. I'm not sure if i would be pursuing a degree in math if I had never encountered it. Also it's pretty cheap.
If you're still getting a handle on how to manipulate fractions and stuff like that you might not be ready for it but you will be soon enough.
Like justrasputin says, there usually is quite a lot of work to be done before you start to really see the beauty everyone refers to. I'd like to suggest a few book about mathematics, written by mathematicians that explicitly try to capture the beauty -
By Marcus Du Sautoy (A group theorist at oxford)
By G.H. Hardy,
Also, a good collection of seminal works -
God Created the Integers
And a nice starter -
What is Mathematics
Good luck and don't give up!
You might want to try "What is Mathematics?" by R.Courant and H.Robbins. The book is written for people new to the field of theoretical mathematics and is intended for those who wish to develop a solid foundation on the topic.
I had started college as an engineer, switched to English, and now work as an ESL instructor. However, my love of math never died (despite my university professors' best attempts). So, I picked up that book a little while ago. It's a good read (albeit a dense one), and it covers a little bit of what you have listed.
[Amazon link here] (http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Ideas-Methods/dp/0195105192)
Edit: some words
These are a couple of nice old books about mathematical thinking:
Leonard Susskind, as is mentioned, wrote a book that I strongly recommend The Black Hole Warin which he goes on to talk about A.) Hawking Radiation B.) Whether "Information" that goes into a black hole is permanently destroyed and for me, at lest, C.) he brought up the notion of the universe being a holographic image.
He sets out to write the book for the populous at large, and I feel he succeed in that. The Book was a VERY excellent read for the subject at hand. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who frequents this sub reddit.
This is exactly what this book is about.
I really enjoyed The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind.
There is a fascinating book on all of this called "The Black Hole War" by Leonard Susskind. It is very accessible to non physicists and tells the story about what a black hole is and the struggle in the physics community to understand them.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-War-Stephen-Mechanics/dp/0316016411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1251142505&amp;sr=8-1
Cosmos by Carl Sagan Get a used copy. Best 50 cents you can spend.
Looking on their website it seems as if they do not let outside people borrow from their library, sorry :(.
I know many libraries have "partnerships" for the lack of a better word, where if you try to borrow a book from the library, and they don't have it, they will request it from somewhere else they are partnered with and get it for you.
Some ideas of books:
For my undergraduate astrophysics class I used - Foundations of Astrophysics by Ryden and Peterson, ISBN13: 978-0-321-59558-4
I have also used (more advanced, graduate level) - An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Carroll and Ostlie, ISBN13: 978-0-805-30402-2
There are plenty of other undergraduate text books for astrophysics, but those are the only two I have experience with.
Some other books that may be just fun reads and aren't text books:
A Brief History of Time - Hawking
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter - Feynman
Random popular science books:
Parallel Worlds - Kaku (or anything else by him Michio Kaku)
Cosmos - Sagan
Dark Cosmos - Hooper
or anything by Green, Krauss, Tyson, etc.
Videos to watch:
I would also suggest, if you have an hour to burn, watching this video by Lawrence Krauss. I watched it early on in my physics career and loved it, check it out:
Lawrence Krauss - A Universe From Nothing
Also this video is some what related:
Sean Carroll - Origin of the Universe and the Arrow of Time
Hope you enjoy!
Edit: Formatting.
This is a question I have grappled with, since it is something I will eventually face if I ever have children. I feel like the only reasonable route is to provide my child with a copy of this, this, and this, as well as a copy of the Bible, and encourage them to ask questions about anything they're trying to understand. I'll tell them the truth: that many people believe in a god or gods, but that there's no proof that any of it is actually true, and tell them that it's important to understand it for themselves instead of relying on someone stating that something is true and refusing to allow them to question it.
Question everything, even the most mundane detail, until you understand why anything is said to be true or false. That will hopefully be the legacy that I can leave to a child.
Santa Claus will also be a problem.
You can't go wrong with anything by Carl Sagan. Try Cosmos to start with.
Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip S. Thorne is another good one.
Going to try and post books that are related, but not actually "atheist".
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
The first one for obvious reasons. Sagan is the secular Jesus, and I'd say the second is an interesting read for anyone religious or otherwise, but I feel like it would be better received if you don't actually believe in Christianity. It's a great read though
English.
Cosmos is written By Carl Sagan. Amazon sure has it.
If not, google it. It's pretty popular/famous book.
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I guess you're pretty young because you didn't recognize Carl Sagan.
Carl Sagan was american researcher, astronomer and educator, very famous in public because his involvement as host/narator for Cosmos TV Series.
The new Cosmos TV Series is being hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson btw.
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If you have finished Cosmos, read his sci-fi Novel "Contact"
Really good.
Ridiculously good.
Same book was adapted to movie with same title :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/
Starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey
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Interesting trivia:
Carl Sagan is also the one who design/head committee of Voyager Golden Record.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record
His legacy literally will go on forever, unless it bump into celestial object :)
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I'm glad you found the beauty in old literature.
Huge fans of Agatha Christie myself.
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edit (add Amazon link):
https://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345331354
About the universe and what happened between t=0 and now? Well, I'd have to say start with Cosmos and you can also go with the documentary Sagan did of the same name. He touches on this subject in both of those.
Lawrence Krauss wrote A Universe from Nothing which goes into how there are explanations on how our universe could come to be without the need of the supernatural.
Victor Stenger has a bunch of books on this topic but I guess I might recommend The Falacy of Fine-Tuning.
I wrote this for you really quick, it's a simple web service that will return the price given an amazon product id. Example: http://amazon-simple-price.heroku.com/product/0345331354 returns "$7.99"
If you know the amazon id, you already know the product URL: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/${the_id}/ so it is no necessary to return with the price.
Meh, was a bit anti-climactic.
I preferred Fermat's Last Theorem. That took 350 years to solve, not just a quick google. Kids today etc...
Fermat's Last Theorem is a pretty good story. It's an easy to understand problem that was unsolved for 300 years until ~20 years ago.
There's a book about it and a PBS documentary you can watch for free.
When I was his age, I read a lot of books on the history of mathematics and biographies of great mathematicians. I remember reading Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem.
Any book by Martin Gardner would be great. No man has done as much to popularize mathematics as Martin Gardner.
The games 24 and Set are pretty mathematical but not cheesy. He might also like a book on game theory.
It's great that you're encouraging his love of math from an early age. Thanks to people like you, I now have my math degree.
Maybe a bit off topic, but I think that if you have a "math phobia" as you say, then maybe you need to find a way to become interested in the math for math's sake. I don't think you'll be motivated to study unless you can find it exciting.
For me, The Universal History of Numbers was a great book to get me interested in math. It's a vast history book that recounts the development of numbers and number systems all over the world. Maybe by studying numbers in their cultural context you'll find more motivation to study, say, the real number system (leading to analysis and so on). That's just an example and there are other popular math books you could try for motivation (Fermat's Enigma is good).
Edit: Also, there are numerous basic math books that are aimed at educated adults. Understanding Mathematics is one which I have read at one point and wasn't bad as far as I can remember. I am sure there are more modern, and actually for sale on Amazon, books on this topic though.
Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh is an approachable history of Fermat's last theorem, various brilliant but failed proofs, and Wiles' ultimate conquest. While it's not technical, the book profiles the mathematicians tormented by Fermat's theorem and details the approaches they used. You may find it helpful as a map or a timeline. Certainly worth reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-Problem/dp/0385493622
Math 53 isn't heavy on proofs at all except possibly near the tail end of the course. Actually, the whole purpose of Math 53 really is the last 2 weeks when it gets into the Stoke's and Divergence Theorem. If you want to get started early on that I recommend the excellent Div, Grad, Curl, and All That which is a short text you can get online or the library that really makes the topic more manageable. Be prepared for it because it will hit you right at the end of the semester although the curve is generally nicer than Math 1B.
Math 54, or linear algebra in general, is for a lot of people the "intro to proofs" course. Right around the time Math 53 goes at breakneck speed, Math 54 finishes up with fourier analysis. It's doable but you have to stay on top of things the whole semester or have a miserable few weeks near the end.
As others have mentioned, there are a lot of good books on Math Methods of Physics out there (I used Hassani's Mathematical Methods: For Students of Physics and Related Fields).
That said, if you're having trouble with calculus, I'd recommend going back and really understanding that well. It underlies more or less all the mathematics found in physics, and trying to learn vector calculus (essential for E&M) without having a solid understanding of single-variable calculus is just asking for trouble.
There are a number of good books out there. Additionally, Khan Academy covers calculus very well. The videos on this page cover everything you'd encounter in your first year, and maybe a smidge more.
Once you move on to vector calculus, Div, Grad, Curl and All That is without equal.
I found the book Div Grad Curl and All That to explain it pretty well. The book is short enough to read through in a couple hours.
I thought of some books suggestions. If you're going all in, go to the library and find a book on vector calculus. You're going to need it if you don't already know spherical coordinates, divergence, gradient, and curl. Try this one if your library has it. Lots of good books on this though. Just look for vector calculus.
Griffiths has a good intro to E&M. I'm sure you can find an old copy on a bookshelf. Doesn't need to be the new one.
Shankar has a quantum book written for an upper level undergrad. The first chapter does an excellent job explaining the basic math behind quantum mechanics .
Is it this one?
For vector calculus: Div, Grad, Curl, and All That: An Informal Text on Vector Calculus
For complex variables/Laplace: Complex Variables and the Laplace Transform for Engineers - Caution! Dover book! Slightly obtuse at times!
For the finite difference stuff I would wait until you have a damn good reason to learn it, because there are a hundred books on it and none of them are that good. You're better off waiting for a problem to come along that really requires it and then getting half a dozen books on the subject from the library.
I can't help with the measurement text as I'm a physicist, not an engineer. Sorry. Hope the rest helps.
Haven't used it myself, but you might want to check out Div,Grad,Curl by Schey.
Howdy, I’m originally from near Wausau!
Honestly, the DNR has good (and free) materials they’ll send you for tracks, though there aren’t to many tracks to figure out.
As for a book, I don’t know if you’re gonna find an all-in-one book that is comprehensive enough to be safe, but if you’re looking for a guide to edible plants look no further!
It doesn’t just cover your local area, unfortunately, but it gives you a lot of information at your finger tips. I wouldn’t expect you to grab the book and be able to immediately determine what something is, but it’s probably the best you’ll find in that department. Remember, if you do take a guide out, practice practice practice and eventually you’ll be able to go “Oh look! Allium! Ah, blue lettuce! Etc.” it’s not an overnight thing. Also, always err to the side of caution. If you aren’t 100%, be very very very careful.
Found this online: http://www.nativeventures.net/shopexd.asp?id=26
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X
And this article: https://medium.com/@youngerpants/edible-foraging-9fcc68f6d784
I can definitely relate, I've had to learn on my own. Practice! Go out into the wild and start identifying. Eventually you can get really good at it by yourself. I hope you find someone though!
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I have this book and like it a lot: https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1474915932&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=edible+plants
I have a couple of the peterson field guides which are awesome. This one and this one are great. I also have one of the samuel thayer books. He's freakin hilarious! Ancestral plants is also pretty interesting but it goes into more detail about less plants compared to the other books. These books are specific to my region(mid-atlantic/new england) but I know there are peterson guides for and other areas.
For science!! :D http://www.amazon.com/dp/039592622X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=UMLY5H7YEIJC&amp;coliid=IXGJUCOHBNII6
A field guide to edible wild plants. As a field ecologist, this would be SO useful. on my wishlist ^^
For art!! Ostart 18 Sizes 16'' (40cm) Circular Bamboo Knitting Needles Set Kit (2.0mm - 10.0mm), on my wishlist ^^
Time to start knitting hats for Christmas presents (I remind myself of Hermione Granger SO much sometimes)
Books like this one and this one are where I began my journey to the plant life.
The book I used to get me started was Petersons Field Guide for Wild Edible Plants found here http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X
Buy this guide to edible plants
https://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-Eastern-Peterson/dp/039592622X
a guide to medicinal plants and herbs
https://www.amazon.com/Peterson-Medicinal-Eastern-Central-America/dp/0547943989/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=0547943989&amp;pd_rd_r=N08YM67213X8MZCEC0YJ&amp;pd_rd_w=eRrcI&amp;pd_rd_wg=8ynt4&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=N08YM67213X8MZCEC0YJ
I agree, here is one for my area: A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides).
Mullberries just started getting ripe in my area. I have also used wild grape leaves to make stuffed grape leaves, but other than that I don't know too much about wild foraging. I recently treated myself and bought this book: A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039592622X which has been a cool read so far :P
buy a good field guide for your area and use "google lens" for more distinct looking plants and fungi. I am fairly new to foraging and have learned a few things that I can share. Nothing in this world will be as useful as going into the woods with someone else who knows what they are doing and what to look for. Your local area likely has some special things to look for and some things to look out for and a local guide will be well versed in those. Next is be curious about everything but don't overwhelm yourself either, concentrate on identifying a few things at a time and learn exactly what to look for in identifying/differentiating that particular plant/fungus. Be careful and have fun.
Here is the book I like to bring with me into the woods in the northeast:
Edible Wild Plants: Eastern/Central North America (Peterson Field Guides) Paperback – September 1, 1999
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039592622X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The Feynman Lectures
Square one...
You should have a solid base in math:
Introduction to Calculus and Analysis, Vol. 1 by Courant and John. Gotta have some basic knowledge of calculus.
Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary Boas. This is pretty high-level applied math, but it's the kind of stuff you deal with in serious physics/astrophysics.
You should have a solid base in physics:
They Feynman Lectures on Physics. Might be worth checking out. I think they're available free online.
You should have a solid base in astronomy/astrophysics:
The Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy by Frank Shu. A bit outdated but a good textbook.
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Carroll and Ostlie.
Astrophysics: A Very Short Introduction by James Binney. I haven't read this and there are no reviews, I think it was very recently published, but it looks promising.
It also might be worth checking out something like Coursera. They have free classes on math, physics, astrophysics, etc.
Have a read of these. Fantastic set of lectures. http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-boxed-set/dp/0465023827
Like I already explained, the strong and weak force also play key roles. The strong force keeps the quarks bound together in nucleons, and keeps the nucleus bound together. The weak force is involved in radioactive decay, which occurs inside your body as well.
If you want to actually learn about physics, start here.
The Physics AS/A Levels are a funny lot of modules; I believe they're designed to be doable without any A Level-equivalent Maths knowledge, so they're riddled with weird explanations that really try to avoid maths - which often just makes everything harder in the long run. (I did AQA Physics A, but all were pretty similar as far as I gathered.)
With that in mind, if you're looking to study Physics further on, I'd recommend supplementing your mathematics. If you're doing Further Maths, you probably needn't bother, as the first year of any university course will bore you to death repeating everything you learnt about calculus etc.; if you're doing single Maths, I'd recommend getting confident with C1-4, and maybe purchasing the Edexcel (Keith Pledger) FP1/FP2 books to get slightly ahead before uni. They're great books, so might be useful to have for Y1 of uni and reference thereafter regardless. I was quite put off by the attitude towards Y1 maths of the Further Maths people (about half the cohort), who kept moaning about having done it all already, so found focusing in lectures a tad harder; I wish I'd bothered to read just a little ahead.
The second thing I'd recommend would be reading fairly broadly in physics to understand what aspect in particular you enjoy the most. In my experience, the students who have even a rough idea of what they want to do in the future perform better, as they have motivation behind certain modules and know how to prioritise for a particular goal, e.g. summer placement at a company which will look for good laboratory work, or even as far as field of research.
To that end (and beginning to answer the post!), books that aren't overly pop-science, like Feynman's Six Easy Pieces/Six Not-so-Easy Pieces are good (being a selection of lectures from The Feynman Lectures). Marcus Chown does a similarly good job of not dumbing things down too much in Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You and We Need to Talk About Kelvin, and he talks about a good variety of physical phenomena, which you can look up online if they interest you. I could recommend more, but it really depends how you want to expand your physics knowledge!
E - darn, just read you're not in the UK. Oops. Mostly still applies.
No not reliable at all. New age spiritual nonsense with the word quantum thrown around with no rhyme or reason!
Read any of these instead. Actual physics books for new to physics readers;
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0393609391/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_.n-xDb972EWGF
Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178416075X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Po-xDbCXBA3FT
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by its Most Brilliant Teacher https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0465025277/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_sq-xDbBG45M3D
I'd disagree. While the Lectures book itself is a harder lift, he further adapted it for lay audiences as Six Easy Pieces.
http://www.amazon.com/Six-Easy-Pieces-Essentials-Explained/dp/0465025277
The following are all really good and all very different. Check out the reviews and decide what fits you best. If I had to pick only one, I would pick one of the first three listed.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471530123
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592577229
http://www.amazon.com/The-Humongous-Book-Calculus-Problems/dp/1592575129
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817636773
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0760706603
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ZEC19Y
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0070293317
I've heard good things about: http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8
but I admit I haven't read it.
http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773
http://www.amazon.com/Trigonometry/dp/0817639144
EDIT: I don't know what ACT is, so I don't know how well it will prepare you for that.
Read this: https://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773 and you're more than set for algebraic manipulation.
And if you're looking to get super fancy, then some of that: https://www.amazon.com/Method-Coordinates-Dover-Books-Mathematics/dp/0486425657/
And some of this for graphing practice: https://www.amazon.com/Functions-Graphs-Dover-Books-Mathematics/dp/0486425649/
And if you're looking to be a sage, these: https://www.amazon.com/Kiselevs-Geometry-Book-I-Planimetry/dp/0977985202/ + https://www.amazon.com/Kiselevs-Geometry-Book-II-Stereometry/dp/0977985210/
If you're uncomfortable with mental manipulation of geometric objects, then, before anything else, have a crack at this: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Graph-Theory-Dover-Mathematics/dp/0486678709/
These are, in my opinion, some of the best books for learning high school level math:
These are all 1900's Russian math text books (probably the type that /u/oneorangehat was thinking of) edited by I.M. Galfand, who was something like the head of the Russian School for Correspondence. I basically lived off them during my first years of high school. They are pretty much exactly what you said you wanted; they have no pictures (except for graphs and diagrams), no useless information, and lots of great problems and explanations :) There is also I.M Gelfand Trigonometry {[.pdf] (http://users.auth.gr/~siskakis/GelfandSaul-Trigonometry.pdf) | Amazon} (which may be what you mean when you say precal, I'm not sure), but I do not own this myself and thus cannot say if it is as good as the others :)
I should mention that these books start off with problems and ideas that are pretty easy, but quickly become increasingly complicated as you progress. There are also a lot of problems that require very little actual math knowledge, but a lot of ingenuity.
Sorry for bad Englando, It is my native language but I haven't had time to learn it yet.
There's actually a good book on Ayahuasca, by an anthropologist named Jeremy Narby, called The Cosmic Serpent. I read it a few years back, and it's pretty entertaining, as well as informative.
I wanted to listen to part 2 before commenting.
I always love these dialogues. My particular fixation is with the collection of data, so this feeds my particular flavor of existence quite well.
As for content, this was my introduction to the term "pansychism" - even if I've previously been aware of the idea. So, thanks for that. I'm curious if you've read "The Cosmic Serpent" (https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642)? It's an interesting panpsychic exploration of DNA instigated by an anthropologist's shamanic/psychedelic experience. Worth a read.
I'm also still digesting "neo-nihilism". Interesting idea, initially. Your conversation with Peter is a great example of why I've completely fallen in love with "psychedelic philosophy". Nothing is off limits, everything should be explored.
Thank you for bringing more of the exploratory spirit to us. Looking forward to more from you.
Edit: I LOVE your logo as well! Such a clean way to bring the yin/yang, forbidden fruit, and ouroboros out.
For a general overview of the history of traditional herbal medicine in the West, I recommend Barbara Griggs' book, Green Pharmacy: The History and Evolution of Western Herbal Medicine.
For traditional shamanic, magical use of herbal medicinal plants, I suggest you look into the Native American tradition(s). If you are looking for something in the area of psychedelics, I can recommend one book I liked: Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
For a bend towards energy medicine and the inner practice of herbalism, see Matthew Wood's books, for example The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification.
You even listen to Terrence McKenna?? Lol you'll be fine! I say go for it.
The thing about Terrence McKenna is that, like his brother Dennis said,if he's right about even 1% of his claims, that's a very important thing in the world.
I read a book once on ayahausca and DNA where this geneticist did an anthropology thing where he went and did ayahuasca with tribes in South America to scientifically prove a connection between ayahausca and DNA. It's a VERY interesting read. He does a great job at dumbing it down to laymen's terms so that someone who's not a scientist can read the book and understand it. Then the second half of the book is all works cited. Sources for every single claim he makes during the book. So if someone wanted to they could see proof for all the things he was claiming. He does great at not adding any of his personal beliefs into the book as well, it is purely scientific. It's called the cosmic serpent : Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge https://www.amazon.com/dp/0874779642/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5QgMBbG18AQY8
A book that you may be interested in is called 'The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge.' It's a really good read and not too long. https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642
It's an archetype in the human brain. I've seen snakes on different psychedelic substances, most notably ayahuasca.
Jeremy Narby wrote a very interesting book about snake symbolism, psychedelics and DNA called 'The Cosmic Serpect'. Highly recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cosmic-Serpent-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642
I'd recommend reading the Cosmic Serpent ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Cosmic-Serpent-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642). Narby seems to think that psychedelics allowed native people to have direct access to DNA and that it is represented in art as two intertwined serpents. Very entertaining and interesting.
Everyone should read the Cosmic Serpent. It's a little boring in the middle but don't give up halfway through. Definitely an amazing book.
You should start reading The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge if you haven't already. It's sitting in my "to read" pile, but if my journey took me in the direction that your experience seems to suggest, I can guarantee I'd be fast-tracking it to the top of the pile.
If you're unfamiliar with Jeremy Narby, check out this interview over at Deoxy. I have a feeling some of his notions might compliment your own.
Thanks! :) That's a really good idea to wait until you are ready as mindset and intention matter quite a bit.
General Information:
/r/Ayahuasca
-http://forums.ayahuasca.com/
-good forum with general knowledge
-https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/
while it's mostly dmt centered, this is probably the best entheogen community online. Has some good writeups on Ayahuasca and DMT visuals are often pretty similar to Ayahuasca since it's the same chemical in most brews(n,n dmt). Breakthrough visuals are much more common on DMT but healing is rarer in my experience.
https://ayaadvisors.org/
Great review site for retreat centers. There are more in the US, especially if you look around.
Books:
The Cosmic Serpent
The Ayahuasca Test Pilot's Handbook
As for posts, this one from dmt nexus is a good primer:
https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&amp;t=8972
Hopefully that's enough to at least get the ball rolling. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
I don't really want to comment on your postulates or discourage your thinking, but I would recommend the book, The Cosmic Serpent, in which an anthropologist examines shamanic traditions in the Amazon.
The question of how these shamans discovered the use of specific hundreds of assorted plants in the Amazon, out of the choice of tens of thousands, that cured, nourished, or tripped-out their people for millenia is central to the book, and doesn't require recourse to divine inspiration-- but it is perhaps as recondite and mysterious. It seems like a similar path of inquiry, and a wholly illuminating book of quality ethnobotany and anthropology.
Good luck in the search for truth... but it might not be wheat.
Maybe? This is something I've learned through experience, observation and meditation. But a lot of things will elaborate this principle. First thing that comes to mind is the four forces in physics, recently being understood as one single force that has settled into four discreet manifestations. Thats kinda hard to wrap your head around without a lot of physics knowledge though.
However, there is a book called The Cosmic Serpent that has at least one chapter that is illuminating on the subject. I've only read the bits on Google Books though.
The pretentious part of me wanted to say "only the book that is the universe," but thankfully good taste prevailed.
I took a Stats for Sci & Eng class (it had this book). All I learned was that stats is really hard and you have to use way more calculus than I initially thought.
I'm potentially interested in picking up a textbook on error analysis. How do we feel about John R. Taylor's book?
This was on the cover of a college text book I had: An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements
>When's the last time someone flew a train into a building?
It's happened before.
This book about error analysis is really good
I think the rule about sig figs is that you want the sig figs on your error to be of the same place as your last sig fig in your calculation. So your numbers would be 5.77 ± 0.31.
The ACS exam is a large standardized multiple choice test written by the American Chemistry Society. The ACS chemistry subject exams are frequently used to prove proficiency for incoming graduate students.
The two tests are not necessarily all free response. She prefers to give part multiple choice and part short answer. There are built in curves for the exams. Things like there being 8 short answer questions, but you pick four and those are the only ones you have to answer.
As for what is sufficient, I don't know. I go for there is no kill like overkill, so that isn't a help. How long the Sapling homework takes you is highly variable. If I started at the beginning of a chapter it always took me longer than if I started by the midpoint, but that's a personal thing. If you keep after it and actually do work about two hours a day every single day, then you should be just fine for any course.
This said, I highly recommend reading Organic Chemistry As A Second Language to help get your head around the topics. Keep track of the electrons and what they are doing rather than specific mechanisms by name. Look for the patterns rather than trying to memorize everything. Don't be afraid to use the CRC for tutoring, second floor of the chem building on your left as you walk through the doors, it's paid for in your tuition and fees for taking organic chemistry. Also, make use of your resources and use YouTube videos and Khan academy when you get stuck. They don't often go in a great deal of depth, but they can get you on the right track.
Dandekar does reward work. If she can see that you are busting ass because your study group leader reports that you've been there working hard that helps. If you do all of the extra credit and it isn't slapdash, that gets rewarded as well. I can't speak to the bumping grades by a letter, but I can tell you she respects it and she rewards it.
The commute is what concerns me in your case. I'm not much better off living in the Frisco area about half an hour away from campus. Having been there done that, what really helped for me was that I set things up so that I would spend the entire days at UNT alternating with the community college. The commute is not trivial. Also, thanks to the lovely parking situation, you should plan to arrive at the campus nearly an hour before class to give yourself time to find a parking spot, walk to class, and get settled in the right frame of mind to learn something new. After 9:30 am and before 2 pm, finding parking is not easy.
Go buy Organic Chemistry as a Second Language Link
and use Khan academy or any other youtube videos to fill in the general chemistry blanks. Maybe review lewis structures if you're not doing that in class. To be honest there's not a ton of overlap conceptually with your general chemistry courses, so you shouldn't be terribly unprepared. Just do not get behind, if you keep up with the material it shouldn't be overwhelming, you get behind and it'll get really overwhelming really quickly.
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/111801040X
|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).
I am currently completing my two semesters of organic after completing gen chem seven years ago. I spent the summer reviewing the gen material and I felt pretty well prepared for organic. Like some of the other users have said, a good class will pull you up to snuff on what you need to know. Besides, organic has a lot more to do with the illustrative way that say, a hydrogen atom binds with an oxygen, and its effects, than with numbers. It often feels like it's more of an art class with puzzle-solving than a science class.
I would highly recommend getting a copy of Organic Chemistry as a Second Language. Amazing reference and clarifying tool. It will carry you through about 2/3rds of the 1st semester material, as well as give you a good foundation for everything. Not having that foundation is where most people flounder at the end of 1st and all the way through 2nd semester organic. Hope this helps!
I took 109A last quarter with Bruice and LMAO rip it was 2 fast and furious 4 me, and thus my weary brain and butt is re-taking it right now with Aue.
Anyway, I went into this quarter expecting the first half at least to be a breeze for me since yeah, I'd gone through the course once already. But to be honest, Aue's style of teaching is completely different from Bruice's, and I was pretty lost myself and felt like I was taking the course for the first time again. So even more respect to the students that are taking O-chem for the first time under him.
I'm not the best student, but from my own experiences comparing the two classes, I feel like you shouldn't focus too much on the textbook, since Aue deviates from it a lot and teaches things that aren't mentioned in it at all. In Bruice, her tests were basically just the book problems (the questions weren't too hard, there was just so much to cover in so little time, whic, but I'll look through the book now and realize there's so much stuff I had to study in her class last quarter that seems to never be mentioned in Aue.
Are you enrolled in CLAS? That's really helpful for me. I did pretty well on the first midterm this quarter, and it's all because one of the CLAS instructor's pre-midterm review sessions taught me so much and saved my butt.
Seems like the best way to study for Aue is to study his past midterms. I don't have any of my own, but I know he does post an old one online on Gauchospace. Just see if you can get a good understanding of the free response questions, since the first midterm was pretty similar in concept, and if anything, it was the multiple choice questions I struggled more with LOL.
Additionally, one of my older friends gave me this book to supplement my readings last quarter, that I didn't crack open at all until I was in Aue lmao. But I found it pretty helpful, too, since I was too lazy to read the textbook and it seemed like Aue followed the order of this handbook better than Bruice's textbook. I believe it's also one of the supplemental readings he mentions in the syllabus: O-Chem As Second Language
But yeah. Don't stress too much. I hope some of this could be helpful, but take it with a grain of salt, since this is also my first time taking a course under Aue. I too am in the same boat as u in that i feel fked for the next midterm atm :-) But dw, you've still got a couple of days left and I had no idea that I would do decently well on the last midterm until it happened. That can be you, too.
HAVE FAITH IN YOURSELF AND GOOD LUCK!
Sorry, I screwed up the title! Here is the proper link
Organic Chemistry As a Second Language, 3e: First Semester Topics https://www.amazon.com/dp/111801040X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_almNDbJMVD438
I did both Organic Chemistry classes over 1 summer (5 weeks/class). It was easily the most brutal classroom experience of my academic career.
If I could go back I'd definitely start by completing the Organic Chemistry as a Second Language books (http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-As-Second-Language/dp/111801040X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1377566755&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=organic+chemistry+as+a+second+language). There is one for each class, and they are enormously helpful. Aside from that, do all the practice problems from your textbook. Unlike some of your other science classes it can be difficult to memorize the rules and then apply them... you will learn the rules by doing problems.
When it comes to stereochemistry, use models. After you have the 3-dimensional structures down, it is doubtful you will need to come back to the models again.
Try this book for organic chemistry at least.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/111801040X/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=1FFPQ068FSFZDCJVTHB4
It can be found far cheaper in other places, but this book really helped me to grasp organic concepts. I have a bunch of books in PDF format, so if you'd like me to forward them to you PM me your email address. I'd be more than happy to fire them over to you.
In addition, I recommend getting a cheap molecular model kit to further help you to grasp some of concepts that relate to the spatial orientation of molecules/stereochemistry; a lot of people seem to hit the wall when it gets to that point because visualization is difficult. eBay have some cheap sets. Better yet, you could make some with dowel rods and colored beads/polystyrene balls.
I've the utmost admiration for your desire to learn despite your 'age'. Not that it should ever deter you, it's just that I've come to accept that the majority of people just stop caring about learning once they pass a certain point, and so I find it refreshing when I do see somebody striving to learn.
No. A survey of the world's oceanic life is already underway; mapping the ocean floor is not terribly useful or important, and most mapping techniques aren't precise enough to detect small artifacts of the sort that ancient tribes would have had.
NASA, on the other hand, is trying to develop technologies which will make it easier for us to explore and later colonize other planets.
It is almost inevitable that humans will colonize Mars at some point in the next few hundred years (to make a very conservative estimate- it would actually be possible to send a manned mission to mars using a combination of Apollo technology and 1800s industrial chemical reactions to make rocket fuel from the atmosphere of mars).
Space is the final frontier- a frontier with almost limitless potential for expansion. History shows us that nations which are expanding along a frontier show far more innovation and far less stagnation; an example is the American frontier, which gave America a huge boost of innovation and corresponding world power for centuries. Once humanity takes the leap to exploring and colonizing space, it's quite likely that the challenges of that task will unlock a huge wave of technological progress for our entire species.
At the moment, the problem with NASA is that everything in its budget is subject to review by Congress, even though most Congressmen know nothing about what NASA does. This has created a small project centered culture at NASA; groups of scientists lobby for NASA to change its overarching goals in order to justify their individual projects, instead of NASA creating a long term strategy on the lines of the Apollo program which individuals would then adjust their projects to support. Because of this, very little useful gets done, and NASA wastes massive amounts of time and money sitting in the space station doing this test and that test without actually going anywhere.
If you really want to make NASA useful, it should have a set budget (higher than it is now) and a long term plan of action which is controlled by the NASA director, not one which changes every time a new president is elected.
If any of that interested you, The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin is a great read on the subject of NASA and what we should be doing with our space program.
The Case for Mars is a good plan for how to settle Mars.
Project Orion by George Dyson is about the nuclear rocket program.
I would recommend checking out the book "The Case for Mars" by Robert Zubrin. In it he covers how we could begin to colonize mars within 10 years.
I would recommend reading it or listening to the audio book
Puh-lease.
> Here we have this beautifully made basket. It's nice and deep and woven in such a way that each egg is carefully secured and safe from harm short of catastrophe (e.g. having the basket crushed by a falling safe).
Like these five falling safes?
.
> The second basket is a bowling ball size rock. Bowling ball rocks make lousy baskets, so we have to bring all our basket constructing materials with us.
Already proven wrong.
Water: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44952710
And all the other basket materials.
See also https://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet/dp/145160811X
The Moon could be a useful source of some key minerals ("volatiles"), particularly water, both for human consumption and for the production of fuel. This is principally due to the fact that the Moon's lower gravity and lack of atmosphere makes it much easier to get from the Moon's surface to an orbit around the Moon, and moving from lunar orbit to near-Earth space (which the Moon basically defines the outer edge of) is relatively easy as well.
However, for exploration of the rest of the solar system (and beyond!), the real place to go is to the asteroids, starting with the NEOs (Near Earth Objects), as these are not in general gravitationally linked to the Earth, and would allow us much easier access to the rest of the solar system. In his book The Case for Mars Robert Zubrin also shows by analysis that the delta-v needed to get to the the asteroids is actually much lower from Mars than it is from either Earth or the Moon, so a better intermediate target before asteroid mining would actually be Mars, which also possesses far more of the chemicals and minerals useful for spaceflight than the Moon does.
TL;DR there is some reason to go develop the Moon, but much more compelling reasons to focus on Mars and the asteroid belt instead.
Caveat: It depends on what you mean; the radius at which Earth's gravity ceases to be the dominant force acting on a body in orbit, to be replaced by the Sun's gravity, is actually further than the Moon's orbit, and astrodynamicists often refer to that distance as the outer edge of "near-Earth space". Edit: See Sphere of Influence and patched conic approximation for more details.
Maybe Taylor? https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X
This is what my university uses for first year:
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/academic/product/0,4096,0805386858,00.html
And this is second year:
http://www.amazon.ca/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X
Both are great. Very conversational style.
Taylor's Classical Mechanics book has a (visual pun)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_pun] on it.
Im currently in a mechanics physics course and this is the main text book we use
https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X
I'd say it's pretty good and an easy read as well
We have also been using a math text book to complement some of the material
https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physical-Sciences-Mary/dp/0471198269
Hope this helps
The books others have suggested here are all great, but if you've never seen physics with calculus before, you may want to begin with something more accessible. Taylor and Goldstein are aimed at advanced undergraduates and spend almost no time on the elementary formulation of Newtonian mechanics. They're designed to teach you about more advanced methods of mechanics, primarily the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations.
Therefore, I suggest you start with a book that's designed to be introductory. I don't have a particular favorite, but you may enjoy Serway & Jewett or Halliday & Resnick.
Many of us learned out of K&K, as it's been something of a standard in honors intro courses since the seventies. (Oh my god, a new edition? Why?!) However, most of its readers these days have already seen physics with calculus once before, and many of them still find it a difficult read. You may want to see if your school's library has a copy so you can try before you buy.
If you do enjoy the level of K&K, then I strongly encourage you to find a copy of Purcell when you get to studying electricity and magnetism. If you are confident with the math, it is far and away the best book for introductory E&M—there's no substitute! (And personally, I'd strongly suggest you get the original or the second edition used. The third edition made the switch to SI units, which are not well-suited to electromagnetic theory.)
By the way: if you don't care what edition you're getting, and you're okay with international editions, you can get these books really cheaply. For instance: Goldstein, S&J, K&K, Purcell.
Finally, if you go looking for other books or asking other people, you should be aware that "analytical mechanics" often means those more advanced methods you learn in a second course on mechanics. If you just say "mechanics with calculus", people will get the idea of what you're looking for.
As with most things you gotta know the basics. Start with classical mechanics. The best book is Landau's Mechanics, but it's quite advanced. The undergraduate text I used at university was Thornton and Marion. If that's still too much I've heard Taylor's book is even gentler.
Also, make sure you know your calculus.
I agree, however for a first year physics student a bit more depth is required too. Something like Classical Mechanics by Taylor would work well as a supplement, especially to introduce and to familiarize the student with the mathematical side.
If you're feeling ambitious I'd go with https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X and https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Electrodynamics-David-J-Griffiths/dp/1108420419/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1520528734&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=griffiths+electrodynamics
For math you're going to need to know calculus, differential equations (partial and ordinary), and linear algebra.
For calculus, you're going to start with learning about differentiating and limits and whatnot. Then you're going to learn about integrating and series. Series is going to seem a little useless at first, but make sure you don't just skim it, because it becomes very important for physics. Once you learn integration, and integration techniques, you're going to want to go learn multi-variable calculus and vector calculus. Personally, this was the hardest thing for me to learn and I still have problems with it.
While you're learning calculus you can do some lower level physics. I personally liked Halliday, Resnik, and Walker, but I've also heard Giancoli is good. These will give you the basic, idealized world physics understandings, and not too much calculus is involved. You will go through mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and "modern physics". You're going to go through these subjects again, but don't skip this part of the process, as you will need the grounding for later.
So, now you have the first two years of a physics degree done, it's time for the big boy stuff (that is the thing that separates the physicists from the engineers). You could get a differential equations and linear algebra books, and I highly suggest you do, but you could skip that and learn it from a physics reference book. Boaz will teach you the linear and the diffe q's you will need to know, along with almost every other post-calculus class math concept you will need for physics. I've also heard that Arfken, Weber, and Harris is a good reference book, but I have personally never used it, and I dont' know if it teaches linear and diffe q's. These are pretty much must-haves though, as they go through things like fourier series and calculus of variations (and a lot of other techniques), which are extremely important to know for what is about to come to you in the next paragraph.
Now that you have a solid mathematical basis, you can get deeper into what you learned in Halliday, Resnik, and Walker, or Giancoli, or whatever you used to get you basis down. You're going to do mechanics, E&M, Thermodynamis/Statistical Analysis, and quantum mechanics again! (yippee). These books will go way deeper into theses subjects, and need a lot more rigorous math. They take that you already know the lower-division stuff for granted, so they don't really teach those all that much. They're tough, very tough. Obvioulsy there are other texts you can go to, but these are the one I am most familiar with.
A few notes. These are just the core classes, anybody going through a physics program will also do labs, research, programming, astro, chemistry, biology, engineering, advanced math, and/or a variety of different things to supplement their degree. There a very few physicists that I know who took the exact same route/class.
These books all have practice problems. Do them. You don't learn physics by reading, you learn by doing. You don't have to do every problem, but you should do a fair amount. This means the theory questions and the math heavy questions. Your theory means nothing without the math to back it up.
Lastly, physics is very demanding. In my experience, most physics students have to pretty much dedicate almost all their time to the craft. This is with instructors, ta's, and tutors helping us along the way. When I say all their time, I mean up until at least midnight (often later) studying/doing work. I commend you on wanting to self-teach yourself, but if you want to learn physics, get into a classroom at your local junior college and start there (I think you'll need a half year of calculus though before you can start doing physics). Some of the concepts are hard (very hard) to understand properly, and the internet stops being very useful very quickly. Having an expert to guide you helps a lot.
Good luck on your journey!
That's perfect then, don't let me stop you :). When you're ready for the real stuff, the standard books on quantum mechanics are (in roughly increasing order of sophistication)
By the time you get to Shankar, you'll also need some classical mechanics. The best text, especially for self-learning, is [Taylor's Classical Mechanics.] (http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/189138922X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372650839&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=classical+mechanics)
Those books will technically have all the math you need to solve the end-of-chapter problems, but a proper source will make your life easier and your understanding better. It's enough to use any one of
When you have a good handle on that, and you really want to learn the language used by researchers like Dr. Greene, check out
Aside from the above, the most relevant free online sources at this level are
You might find this book to be a good place to start: Algebra, by Gelfand and Shen.
Another book in a similar vein might be Basic Mathematics by Serge Lang.
I haven't used either of these books myself, but I came across them recently, and it looks like they might be among the few titles that cover high-school math in the way that you describe (they were written by prominent research mathematicians).
You might consider using the materials on Khan Academy (articles, videos, and exercises) to structure your studies, since these may be more closely aligned with current standards in the U.S. Then, as you go along, you can use these books as supplements (e.g. if you feel that a different perspective on a particular topic might be helpful).
It's just called "algebra" by I.M. Gelfand and another dude.
For highschool level math I reccomend i.m.gelfands books, one of which is Algebra.
They're excellent for self-study, and provide you with many insights not found elsewhere afaik.
I recommend this book. I read it a while back and remember it having some good information on Ayahausca and its tribal uses. I'm pretty sure that the author also tries it and gives his report.
Inner Paths to Outer Space by Strassman and three others
http://www.amazon.com/Inner-Paths-Outer-Space-Psychedelics/dp/159477224X
The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1302588552&amp;sr=1-1
Astrothelogy and Shamanism by Andrew Rutajit asd Jan Irvin
http://www.amazon.com/Astrotheology-Shamanism-Christianitys-Revolutionary-Reinterpretation/dp/1439222436/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1302588605&amp;sr=1-1
The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Marco Allegro
http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Mushroom-Cross-Christianity-fertility/dp/0982556276/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1302588605&amp;sr=1-3
these guys have some good interviews and a movie called "The Pharmacratic Inquisition" for free on the site
http://www.gnosticmedia.com/
While I haven't read this one, it purports to answer some of these questions
https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642
(it does seem far fetched, although listening to the video in the OP, I'm having trouble finding where JP mentioned DNA specifically... Can anyone please link hr:mn:sc?)
Your DNA. Seriously. Maybe.
Read this book: The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby
https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642
I recommend also reading Jeremy Narby's book "The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge."
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
A MUST read for anyone who has ever partaken :)
Coincidentally, this is my favorite trainwreck of all time.
I would agree that people can get lost in the illusion of what science can and cannot reasonably do. My course of study was very careful to make sure that people were not indoctrinated. The undergraduate courses were of course devoted to learning basic terminology and principles that have been around for decades if not centuries, but the upper division courses never presented you with "this is the answer spit it back" types of courses. It was all about teaching us how to design experiments and how to think critically. For example, one of my favorite courses was Advanced Molecular Genetics where our professor (who had a Nobel Prize and was just teaching for the hell of it- and because he loved tormenting students) would present us with papers that had been published and point us to the "further questions" section and say "design an experiment that would determine what is actually going on." We were judged based on the experiments we designed, and we actually had the equipment to run the experiments, which we did. It would have been a very good reality TV show called "So You Think You're a Scientist." He was brutal. Imagine Gordon Ramsey as a scientist. He would tear you a new one if your experiment was shit and he had nothing to lose. That class was awesome. You had to have balls to show up every day because he'd shit all over everything you did unless you had solid facts to back you up.
Come to think of it- I'd watch the shit out of that show.
But yeah- this book was required reading for all of us. It explicitly lays out what science can do and (more importantly) lays out what science can't do.
Relating to our conversation- people severely overestimate what science can and cannot do. GMOs (or any other technology for that matter) can potentially help or potentially harm. What we have to weigh is the potential harm of the new technology versus the actual harm of the current technology.
Here's an example for a though experiment: Horses vs automobiles. Automobiles emit greenhouse gases and require mining of minerals to make, among other things, catalytic converters. There are risks of using automobiles, but compare them to the hazards of using horses. Piles of manure attracting rats and spreading disease. Millions of acres of cropland being grown to provide fuel for the horses, etc.
Old vs new. Neither is perfect. If we wait for something perfect we'll never do anything and become stagnant.
But thanks for the conversation. And just so you know I have rather thick skin so your insults didn't phase me at all. Glad we could get to the point where we're having civil discourse.
We used this book in my intro level physics lab for error analysis.
You need this book.
Until then - the general formula for error propagation in a function q(x, y, z, ....) with uncertainties &delta;x, &delta;y, &delta;z .... is equal to sqrt( (&delta;x&part;q/&part;x)^2 + (&delta;y&part;q/&part;y)^2 .....)
For your simple case where q = log10(x), &delta;q = &delta;x/(x*ln(10)).
Hope this helps.
A lack of this xD: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Error-Analysis-Uncertainties-Measurements/dp/093570275X
If you're looking to apply basic error analysis, I recommend Taylor's book:
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Error-Analysis-Uncertainties-Measurements/dp/093570275X
It's pretty common to find this book on physics grad students' shelves. You may have already seen it, though, and you may be asking for something deeper.
This image is used in one of my all time favorite textbook covers of all time: Introduction to Error Analysis
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Error-Analysis-Uncertainties-Measurements/dp/093570275X
Refer to this book, it will most definitely have the answer for you. Refer pages 60-62, I think it is what you are looking for, if not that chapter should have the answer for you.
This reminds me of a textbook I used for a physics class
The book, for the uninitiated: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language
Not an ncsu student (wtf am I doing here).
What you need to do is be very very dedicated throughout the summer session and resolve yourself to study everyday. I dont know if you are a premed of some kind or if you are content with leaving with a C. Either way, you need to go through your textbook while in the class, and do EVERY problem in the chapter and the problems at the end of the chapter.
You may read this as over kill, but when I took the class I had already read the first 3-4 chapters before the class started. I left with an A in both I and II.
If you need extra study material, I suggest these:
Textbook (best organic textbook imo):
http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-David-R-Klein/dp/0470917806
A second language book (DO NOT USE THIS AS A SHORTCUT TO LEARN WHY THINGS HAPPEN):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/111801040X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687462&amp;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&amp;pf_rd_t=201&amp;pf_rd_i=0470917806&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_r=1FXC7SNT8XJA6F816TAJ
reply if you need anything else. I dont know anything about feducia or the course itsself. I do know organic though
I've yet to have to use it, but I've hear this book Organic Chemistry As a Second Language, is amazing
Organic Chemistry As a Second Language by David Klein
Buy both the books!
Instead of using my class textbook, I used these two books. These books will cover most of what you need to know in your ochem courses. I wasted money buying the class textbook when I could have used these two books alone.
I haven't a clue there. I've just built stuff on Earth haha and know plywood and siding square footage adds up pretty quick for a structure which would be the similar case with a mold.
Personally I've always imagined something inflatable for living areas at first like Bigelow is testing on ISS. Once we had a good handle on excavating and manufacturing some sort of concrete or brick from local materials I'd imagine buried barrel vault type construction like Zubrin seems to like in some of his books, although I did some math on that once (in this sub I believe), I'll see if I saved it.
Edit: hmmm I can't seem to find it but here's a comment along the ideas
-------------
https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/4qg9i9/bill_nye_warns_about_problems_colonizing_mars/d4sv0r5/
> I never see the lack of a magentosphere getting brought up.
It's not an issue. You aren't going to be living/temporarily living in clear nylon inflated bubbles. Yes, you'll absolutely pick up more rads if you are living in an unshielded habitat but shielding it is going to be quite easy if you have even modest mechanical means of moving regolith.
Worst case for a non permanent mission, the areas of the habitat you spend most of your time in have the water stored in the walls and ceiling.
Quick shielding for more permanent living you take a strong, but light, material like Nylon 6 with you ultra-light metal poles. You place the poles around the habitat you then weave the material between them (think 'under over') and then spend your first few days using modestly powered Martian wheelbarrow to scoop and move regolith between the material and the habitat with the exception of shielded doors. Again, have some of the water stored in the top of the modules for the hours the sun is overhead. OR make a simple machine that fills sandbags, the sandbags would require more material (fabric/plastic) but would likely be quicker than carting regolith around.
More long term shielding, your habitats are largely underground OR you use regolith as a component for making bricks and stack bricks around the hab modules.
For a short term mission I'd do something like what I laid out here with LEGO with the modules being inflatables then I'd come in with poles, sheeting and loose regolith to get in-hab rad exposure similar to what you'd get on Earth. For fun I have about 18.5 m2 of PV panels displayed in the model which would provide about 1415w at high noon and the tanks are actually landed ahead of time largely empty containing ISRU units to generate/capture usable things from the atmosphere. Probably WAVAR for one of the ISRU units which upon landing could quickly be used for starting soil washing experiments and/or hydroponics, if near the northern polar region you could take your time harvesting water ice for melting, you could also have some of the water from the WAVAR going to a second ISRU purely to make oxygen and hydrogen, you could also have one making monopropellant hydrogen peroxide for the return mission and/or return samples.
As far as atmospheric depletion, exactly what /u/Pimozv said
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Edit 2: another relevant comment of mine
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Colonizemars/comments/551o13/as_much_as_everyone_hates_burning_man_man_he_had/d88fg39/
> and sending builders?
Companies might. A lot of the habitats are likely going to be inflatable in nature at first. If you can assemble a tent you'll likely be able to assemble a habitat. Later you can relatively easy make bricks from local materials (almost entirely from the regolith) and build vaults/bunkers under ground and then cover with regolith, pressurize them and they'll eventually seal themselves off thanks to the temperature... moisture from exhalation and what not will seep through any cracks and ultimately freeze You could also go in and paint some sort of sealant. Above ground you'd use a sealant or put an inflatable inside the brick structure. I suggest reading Zubrin's books The Case for Mars and Mars Direct: Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future and his fiction, but scientifically accurate book, How to Live on Mars which is a guide written in the future for those that are on their way to Mars. His fiction book First Landing is also worth reading, it came out before The Martian and involves an entire crew trying to scrape by on Mars.
> The idea of sending one mars on mars just to say that humans walked on it is stupid and doesn,t do much, just like the ISS.
Hence why I did not suggest that; I mentioned Mars Direct, created by Robert Zubrin. He is highly critical of a "flags and footprints" type of mission where we would just land, say something dramatic, plant a flag and leave. Mars Direct involves an 18-month stay and sets the groundwork for future missions, in-situ production of resources and living space, and longer stays. If you haven't read The Case For Mars, I recommend it.
Mars is 37% of Earth's gravity according to wikipedia. It could be true that it may prove detrimental to those living on Mars long-term. I doubt it, but there's one good way to study those affects, and that's to go to Mars. A 3 year mission is unlikely to cause severe issues, especially if gravity is simulated en-route.
You can do that by spinning the craft, as you alluded to, but you can also do so by tethering the habitable portion to another object (such as the burnt out upper stage of the rocket that is sending you to Mars). In doing so you can decrease the size requirements of the habitable portion of the craft. This is discussed as part of Mars Direct. To be fair, this hasn't been tested (certainly not on a large scale - I think a small scale test is happening this year) but the principle is sound.
On that note, some sources on Mars Direct that I found very interesting and helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKQSijn9FBs
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet/dp/145160811X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1456935955&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=a+case+for+mars
Pour ceux que ça intéresse, je recommande vivement
The case for Mars de Robert Zubrin.
Livre écrit en 1996, qui, selon Carl Sagan lui même a changé la perception de la conquête de Mars à la NASA.
Zubrin fait partie des conseilles d'Elon Musk.
Incorrect. Please check out The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Mars-Settle-Planet/dp/145160811X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1344235543&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+case+for+mars
Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars.
Actually it does. Read this book and you'll see we could have already established a base there years ago: http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Mars-Settle-Planet/dp/145160811X
We're delighted to announce that r/SpaceX will be hosting an AMA with Dr. Robert Zubrin! The event will take place in its own dedicated thread this Saturday, November 23rd at 12:00 Pacific Time, which is 20:00UTC. As you may already know, Dr. Z's book The Case for Mars was a significant early influence on SpaceX's Mars colonization plans. His recent IAC2019 Mars Direct 2.0 presentation generated some good discussion here.
This is happening for real! We've been in contact with representatives of the Mars Society and Dr. Zubrin himself. We are very thankful to everyone involved for giving us their time and attention.
We'll collect the top few questions from this thread and repost them in the dedicated AMA thread on Saturday. Everyone will of course be welcome to ask their own questions in the AMA thread as well. Dr. Z will probably stick around answering questions for a few days.
Just to reiterate, this is NOT the actual AMA thread! That will be created a few hours before the AMA begins on Saturday.
The Case for Mars and Entering Space are excellent reading for anyone interested in the future of space exploration. Or blowing up kerbals.
My introduction to both General and Special Relativity was from John Taylor's Classical Mechanics, in free pdf form or in a dead trees format. The General Relativity section is lumped toward the end of the 'Special Relativity' chapter. It would be a great place to start.
I have no experience with Young's books, but if you want to look into alternatives a very popular text book for physics is Physics for Scientists & Engineers by Giancoli, perfect for introductionary courses into classical mechanics. For a more advanced text book about classical mechanics you might want to look into Classical Mechanics by John R. Taylor.
My reason is because I've been teaching myself linear algebra during the summer and thought it might be a good idea to practice my new skills in physics.
Edit: I hadn't thought about re examining classical mechanics from a more advanced perspective. To confirm the textbooks you're talking about is this Morin and this Taylor?
Fortunately, special relativity isn't that mathematically intensive. If you took college algebra and trigonometry, it will be familiar to you. If you took calculus, it will be mathematically easy. Although the concepts are certainly difficult.
This book presents it at a very simple level.
This book and this book present some very interesting physics at a layman level. I'd suggest it to anybody curious about topics such as relativity.
It's probably not quite as directly tied to the specifics of first-year curriculum as Klein, but Feynman's Six Easy Pieces is a great intro to the big picture in physics. If you really want to understand physics, Feynman is one of your best resources.
Really expensive collection of lectures
or
The third chapter of Six Easy Pieces which is the six easiest lectures from the same collection. I opted for cheap, but that complete set is looking mighty tempting.
> Feynman
Feynman was the original ELI5 when it came to physics. I remember this book clearing up a lot of things for me.
Unfortunately, a good understanding of quantum mechanics requires a basic understanding of classical physics.
I would recommend "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" by Gary Zukov. https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Wu-Li-Masters-Overview/dp/0060959681/ref=sr_1_1 "6 Easy Pieces" by Richard P. Feineman https://www.amazon.com/Six-Easy-Pieces-Essentials-Explained/dp/0465025277/ref=sr_1_1? My personal favorite is "Understanding Physics" by Isaac Asimov https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Physics-Volumes-Magnetism-Electricity/dp/B000RG7YPG/ref=sr_1_2? HTH
> moving very slowly through time (i.e, the jiggling atoms are slower
Those are not the same thing. You're getting it backwards. Moving slowly through space doesn't mean you're moving slowly through time. It just means it takes longer to get to where you're going in space.
If you put a clock on an airplane, and you synchronize it with your watch, and then the airplane flies around the world, when it lands, your watch will have measured more elapsed time than the clock on the plane. (People have actually done this with atomic clocks, and it really happens.)
The movement of the airplane through space "uses up" some of its movement through time, so the airplane has moved through less time than you have while you were standing still. The clock (and everything else, like how hungry the passengers are) reflects this. Note that for an airplane, the difference is a tiny fraction of a second, but it's real and has to be compensated for in GPS satellites for example.
(Note that if neither of you speeds up or slows down, each of you is moving slower than the other, which is one of the weird things about relativity and why it's called "relativity".)
When you cool an object, the atoms move more slowly through space; that is correct. Their time doesn't slow down. Chemical reactions (like milk spoiling) progress more slowly, because it's less likely that when two molecules in the substance bump into them they're less likely to be going fast and hence bump together hard enough to react. Water evaporates more slowly when it's cold because any given water molecule getting to the surface is less likely to be going fast enough to pop free of the surface and into the air. But think about it like bumping two lumps of clay together: if you get the two lumps going faster, they're more likely to stick together.
If you make something very hot (like in a particle accelerator like the LHC) by making it move very fast, the time the particle experiences slows down, so a particle that would normally undergo radioactive decay in a billionth of a second sticks around long enough to see. The "cosmic rays" you sometimes hear about are particles coming in from space that only live a fraction of a second, but they're going so fast that their time is so slow (compared to ours) that they last long enough to get all the way from space down to the ground, several seconds.
Fun stuff.
If you want some basic normal every-day "here's how physics works" explained by the guy who won a Nobel prize for explaining to theoretical quantum mechanics theory guys how to understand quantum mechanics, try this: http://www.amazon.com/Six-Easy-Pieces-Essentials-Explained/dp/0465025277 No math involved.
If you want to learn why Einstein's relativity works the way it does, and you understand the Pythagorean Theorem about how long the sides of a right triangle are, try http://www.amazon.com/Six-Not-So-Easy-Pieces-Relativity-Space-Time/dp/B0009IINXE
Basically, if you understand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxrlcLktcxU#t=32 you can understand why Relativity works the way it does. (Mind, you might not believe it... :-)
Forgive me if you already know this stuff and I'm just being confusing because I'm talking about it in a confusing way.
Richard Feynman's 6 Easy Pieces:
http://www.amazon.com/Six-Easy-Pieces-Essentials-Explained/dp/0465025277
It's so much fun to learn about this stuff. Here's one place to start:
http://www.amazon.com/Six-Easy-Pieces-Essentials-Explained/dp/0465025277/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451954715&amp;sr=1-4&amp;keywords=feinman
Feynman's Six Easy Pieces is a great introduction to quantum mechanics. Gary Zukov's book The Dancing Wu Li Masters doesn't have a great reputation among physicists because it strays a bit into mysticism, but I think it's a pretty good read. Capra's Tao of Physics is in the same category. For an easy-to-understand discussion of the weirdness of quantum mechanics, Fred Kuttner and Bruce Rosenblum's Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness is excellent.
This is an Amazon list of books on the subject that I found helpful:
Robert Kroese, author of Schrödinger's Gat
Personally, I think you would get great suggestions on /r/physics. But since you're here...
Since you seem like you're just dipping your toes in the water, you might want to start off with something basic like Hawking (A Brief History of Time, The Universe in a Nutshell).
I highly recommend Feynman's QED, it's short but there's really no other book like it. Anything else by Feynman is great too. I found this on Amazon and though I haven't read it, I can tell you that he was the greatest at explaining complex topics to a mass audience.
You'll probably want to read about relativity too, although my knowledge of books here is limited. Someone else can chime in, maybe. When I was a kid I read Einstein for Beginners and loved it, but that's a comic book so it might not be everyone's cup of tea.
If you really want to understand quantum mechanics and don't mind a little calculus (OK, a lot), try the textbook Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths. Don't settle for hokey popular misconceptions of how QM works, this is the real thing and it will blow your mind.
Finally, the most recent popular physics book I read and really enjoyed was The Trouble with Physics by Smolin. It's ostensibly a book about how string theory is likely incorrect, but it also contains really great segments about the current state of particle physics and the standard model.
Did it have a noticeable taste?
I had a few cases of water that got sun affected and you could really taste the plastic. My cousin told me I was mad and gladly drank them all.
From my elementary knowledge of physics (Six Easy Pieces) it wouldn't be a great idea.
Beyond the obvious choices, Watts' The Book, Ram Dass' Be Here Now, Huxley's Doors of Perception, Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience, and of course Fear and Loathing (all of these should be on the list without question; they’re classics), here are a some others from a few different perspectives:
From a Secular Contemporary Perspective
Godel Escher Bach by Douglass Hofstadter -- This is a classic for anyone, but man is it food for psychedelic thought. It's a giant book, but even just reading the dialogues in between chapters is worth it.
The Mind’s Eye edited by Douglass Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett – This is an anthology with a bunch of great essays and short fictional works on the self.
From an Eastern Religious Perspective
The Tao is Silent by Raymond Smullyan -- This is a very fun and amusing exploration of Taoist thought from one of the best living logicians (he's 94 and still writing logic books!).
Religion and Nothingness by Keiji Nishitani – This one is a bit dense, but it is full of some of the most exciting philosophical and theological thought I’ve ever come across. Nishitani, an Eastern Buddhist brings together thought from Buddhist thinkers, Christian mystics, and the existentialists like Neitzsche and Heidegger to try to bridge some of the philosophical gaps between the east and the west.
The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Nagarjuna (and Garfield's translation/commentary is very good as well) -- This is the classic work from Nagarjuna, who lived around the turn of the millennium and is arguably the most important Buddhist thinker after the Buddha himself.
From a Western Religious Perspective
I and Thou by Martin Buber – Buber wouldn’t approve of this book being on this list, but it’s a profound book, and there’s not much quite like it. Buber is a mystical Jewish Philosopher who argues, in beautiful and poetic prose, that we get glimpses of the Divine from interpersonal moments with others which transcend what he calls “I-it” experience.
The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – this is an old book (from the 1500s) and it is very steeped in Christian language, so it might not be everyone’s favorite, but it is perhaps the seminal work of medieval Christian mysticism.
From an Existentialist Perspective
Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre – Not for the light of heart, this existential novel talks about existential nausea a strange perception of the absurdity of existence.
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus – a classic essay that discusses the struggle one faces in a world inherently devoid of meaning.
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I’ll add more if I think of anything else that needs to be thrown in there!
Most of us are unconscious several times in every 24 hour period, hopefully while safely in bed, so with so much discontinuity in our consciousness there is no reason to assume that today you possess "the same consciousness" as yesterday, but nor is there much of a reason to deny it either. It's a very typical metaphysical dilemma, in that it seems at first to suggest two distinct possibilities, one of which must be true and the other false, but on reflection it turns out there is no way (even in principle) to distinguish between them, so we may have been tricked by the appearance of a dilemma, but which just gives us two different ways of describing or approaching the same thing.
A common approach to creationism is to note that it describes an infinite set of possibilities: the universe might have been created at any instant in the past (even seconds ago) and you along with it, with all your memories in place so as to fool you into think the universe is much older. Much as fossils of dinosaurs are supposed to be a trick (put there by Satan?) in the more popular kinds of creationism.
Pretty much any idea that is likely to occur to us about minds/memory has occurred before to a lot of people and hence has been extensively written about by philosophers. Has anyone pointed you toward this book yet? It's a classic compendium of stuff along these lines.
> I am a Strange Loop
Hofstadter also wrote The Minds I, which is another interesting read.
Mind's I edited by Daniel Dennet and Douglas Hofsteader
A Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julien Jaynes (This is completely debunked, but mindblowing all the same).
Have you checked out r/LucidDreaming? It's more about techniques for gaining greater conscious control, and AFIAK there's little in the way of consciousness research along the lines you bring up (since no-one can even agree on how to define consciousness, we really don't have a place to begin); but it is fertile ground for speculation.
Though it has little material in the way of lucid dreaming, The Mind's I is a classic collection of accessible essays on consciousness from empirical perspectives; and Dream Work is likewise a classic on LDing.
I'll take the time to write it up if you meant that sincerely (because I haven't tried explaining it to someone else before, which is usually pretty helpful for understanding).
But if you meant that facetiously, I expect you'll be surprised how much about the phenomenon of consciousness has been convincingly explained (or, rather, explained away) in the last 20 years. Watch some videos via Google, or try this 9 year old book with some mind-changing perspectives on the subject.
Happy exploring!
No, I haven't read that, but just checked a summary on wikipedia.
The impression I got that is that it is quite populistic. He doesn't say anything new apart from something I seems to have published about the same time on my blog, this part about accelerated returns. I did my PhD in computational neuroscience and have so far, not heard anyone but my self speculate about this about accelerated returns being of importance to the computational efficiency of the brain[1], so this is interesting. Otherwise (only gave it a quick look through, will likely get the book and read) it seems as he is just repeating things which e.g. Douglas Hofstadter, Gerald Edelman, Daniel Dennet and me (thesis from 2003, chapter 7 speculative part) have written about.
> apparently to give him the resources to put into practice his hypothesis from that book.
Yes, this is my theory as well, to make it appear as he will put into practice the hypotheses from that book.
The employment of him can have many reasons:
No 1 would simply be a reasonable business image approach. No 2 would be a sensible beings action, as we do not really need any "conscious AI" (unless I am an AI, have A.I. in my middle names though...) to implement the singularity (which is my project). No 3 is also reasonable, as if the google engineers actually had as goal to implement conscious AI and knew how to do it, they wouldn't need Kurzweil.
However, I suspect that google already know how to implement ethical conscious AI, as when I showed this algorithm from my thesis , he almost instantly refused talking to me more, and said that they can not help me.
I showed that algorithm for 25 strong AI researchers at a symposium in Palo Alto 2004, and they said, yes, this is it.
However, I have later refined it and concluded that the "rules" are not needed, these are built in due to the function of the neural system, all the time striving towards consistent solutions. I wrote a semi jokular (best way to hide something, learned from Douglas Adams) approach to almost rule free algorithm in 2011. The disadvantage with this algorithm is that it can trivially be turned evil. By switching the first condition you could implement e.g. Hitler, by switching the second condition you could implement the ordinary governmental politician...
From the first 40 pages, it looks like a discussion on free will, determinism, religion, morality, etc. It's interesting, and the pages are really short. Reminds me of one of the stories of The Mind's I.
Edit: reading a bit further, it has a nice twist halfway.. I daren't predict what the rest is about.
I will second this. I used this book for my year of undergrad foundations of probably and stats.
I also really like Casella and Berger's 'Statistical Inference.'
https://www.amazon.com/Statistical-Inference-George-Casella/dp/0534243126https://www.amazon.com/Statistical-Inference-George-Casella/dp/0534243126
Since you are still in college, why not take a statistics class? Perhaps it can count as an elective for your major. You might also want to consider a statistics minor if you really enjoy it. If these are not options, then how about asking the professor if you can sit in on the lectures?
It sounds like you will be able to grasp programming in R, may I suggest trying out SAS? This book by Ron Cody is a good introduction to statistics with SAS programming examples. It does not emphasize theory though. For theory, I would recommend Casella & Berger, many consider this book to be a foundation for statisticians and is usually taught at a grad level.
Good luck!
Hrmh, given your background I guess I would go with a suggestion of Wasserman for Statistical Inference or Casella and Berger which isn't really applied. If those are too much for you (which I doubt with your background), there is also Wackerly's Mathematical Statistics with Applications :)
Maybe "too applied", depending on your fields, but there's always Casella and Berger, especially if you're in Economics.
If you are looking for something very calculus-based, this is the book I am familiar with that is most grounded in that. Though, you will need some serious probability knowledge, as well.
If you are looking for something somewhat less theoretical but still mathematical, I have to suggest my favorite. Statistics by William L. Hays is great. Look at the top couple of reviews on Amazon; they characterize it well. (And yes, the price is heavy for both books.... I think that is the cost of admission for such things. However, considering the comparable cost of much more vapid texts, it might be worth springing for it.)
We use Casella and Berger. It glosses over the measure theory somewhat but it appropriately develops the concept of "a probability". If you haven't had much background in proper math stats, then this is a good place to start (even if you've done the more applied courses).
I’m finishing up my stats degree this summer. For math, I took 5 courses: single variable calculus , multi variable calculus, and linear algebra.
My stat courses are divided into three blocks.
First block, intro to probability, mathematical stats, and linear models.
Second block, computational stats with R, computation & optimization with R, and Monte Carlo Methods.
Third block, intro to regression analysis, design and analysis of experiments, and regression and data mining.
And two electives of my choice: survey sampling & statistical models in finance.
Here’s a book for intro to probability. There’s also lectures available on YouTube: search MIT intro to probability.
For a first course in calculus search on YouTube: UCLA Math 31A. You should also search for Berkeley’s calculus lectures; the professor is so good. Here’s the calc book I used.
For linear algebra, search MIT linear algebra. Here’s the book.
The probability book I listed covers two courses in probability. You’ll also want to check out this book.
If you want to go deeper into stats, for example, measure theory, you’re going to have to take real analysis & a more advanced course on linear algebra.
Since you're an applied math PhD, maybe the following are good. They are not applied though.
This is the book for first year statistics grad students at OSU.
http://www.amazon.com/Statistical-Inference-George-Casella/dp/0534243126/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1368662972&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=casella+berger
But, I like Hogg/Craig much more.
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mathematical-Statistics-7th-Edition/dp/0321795431/ref=pd_sim_b_2
I believe each can be found in international editions, and for download on the interwebs.
Give them The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution.
I'm in no way qualified enough to talk about it myself but since nobody else has said anything particularly helpful, Richard Dawkins does a great job covering this stuff in a clear and easy to understand way in Ancestor's Tale
I'm not a professional in the field, but my favorite free-time science books are usually focused on evolutionary biology, so here goes. One of the best discussions on this particular topic I've read is in The Ancestor's Tale by Dawkins. It's an excellent 3-page discussion you can read in full by accessing the "Look Inside!" preview of the book on Amazon (link to book page) and scrolling to the bottom of page 430. Do this by searching for "Maynard Smith" and clicking on the result on page 430. You'll need to sign in in order to search.
Anyways, I'll try to summarize the discussion here (although I'm a huge fan of Dawkins' eloquence in this book so I'm afraid I won't do it much justice). At a fairly naive level, sex is an evolutionary paradox. Modern Darwinism says that every organism strives to pass on as many of its genes as possible to its offspring. If this is true, however, why does sex, which is basically throwing away half of your own genes and mixing them with half of those of some other stranger, make any sense? An asexual organism can pass on 100% of its genes to its offspring. A sexual organism can only pass on 50%.
And yet, sexual reproduction is pretty much the norm for multi-cellular organisms. This suggests that the "twofold" cost of sex is somehow "cancelled out" by some other advantage of having two parents. One possibility is if the male commits to the child (instead of just running off to have sex with some other female), the couple can, as a group, produce at least twice as many offspring as the asexual alternative. While it is true that the male puts as much effort into child-rearing as the female in a few species, (emperor penguins, for instance), it is by no means the norm. So there must be something else going on.
Genetic recombination Dawkins hesitates to say that it alone is sufficient to counteract the massive twofold cost of sex, but it is definitely a factor.
----------------------
After this Dawkins makes some points that are very interesting but not totally relevant to your question, so I'll just summarize it very quickly. High school biology teaches us that genetic recombination introduces diversity and variety to the gene pool. Dawkins makes the point that sexual reproduction simultaneously has the opposing effect as well because it introduces the very concept of a gene pool. Think about it: an asexual organism shares none of its genes with its brethren. The very idea of a gene pool is nonsensical. In fact, you could say every new creature is a separate species because from that moment on, it's evolutionary path is completely different from that of its brother or sister. Yes, sexual reproduction, through the process of genetic recombination potentially allows for greater diversity and variety. But sexual reproduction introduces a gene pool that tends to diffuse the effects of genetic recombination. Gene pools have a massive "inertia" that a single wayward member cannot easily change. Dawkins forwards this not necessarily as a benefit of sex, but rather a consequence of it.
Richard Dawkins
at Amazon...
Since gordonj has already written a fine answer, let me take another tack and suggest that the book An Ancestor's Tale is a very readable discussion of topics related to this.
Because there is no god, just the universe of which you are a part of. Get the strong feeling of being a part of this universe next time you trip (if you trip again shrooms might be the better choice). Also i think your real crisis is obvious: You seak a worldview. Go read some E.O. Willson (the social conquest of the earth) or the "ancestors tale" by richard dawkins (https://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Dawn-Evolution/dp/061861916X) and also read about some philosphers. I think THIS is what would really really help you. Go for it and speak about your new insights with your councilor. You will be happier and more fullfilled than prior the experience. But dont try to get religious, thank you.
I just started reading some of Richard Dawkins - The Ancestor's Tale, and it seems pretty good.
An hour or two ago I added The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution to my book wishlist. I don't plan on buying most books on my wishlist. I just use it as a reminder to request the book from the library when I have more time.
This book is an excellent and simple example of animals evolving now, right before our eyes: http://www.amazon.com/The-Beak-Finch-Story-Evolution/dp/067973337X
Here’s a book about this
Not necessarily slow...
Beak of the finch by Jonathan Weiner is a pretty darn good book. It tells of one experiment on evolution and how it works. I have read a lot, but this one is more about the people as well as the new ideas of experiment than the theory of evolution.
The Beak of the Finch. It's nonfiction about how scientists are actually recording quantifiable evolution within Darwin's finches. Much more interesting than it might sound...
Read "The Beak of the Finch," two species hybridized and essentially gave rise to a third species. The book talks about the research and discoveries of Peter and Rosemary Grant, both highly respected biologists. http://www.amazon.com/Beak-Finch-Story-Evolution-Time/dp/067973337X
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time follows the Drs Grant who followed finches in the Galapagos over multiple generations. and observed the beginnings of the process of speciation. It's a very good book, and I highly encourage you to read it.
The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. Probably one of the best books that cover the research on the Galapagos finches.
I highly recommend reading about the research going on into evolution of finches in the Galapagos. They've been the subject of study since the 70's and it's fascinating stuff.
For a short read, check out this National Geographic article. There's also the Pulitzer prize winning book on the subject, The Beak of the Finch.
tl;dr - Significant evolutionary change can happen in the span of just a few months, rather then millennia. (E.g. researchers have seen the average size of finch beaks change by 15% in just 1-2 years).
Religious thought has been eliminated from the UK, perhaps by people like mark204, who made a new account just to post that unuseful trolling.
Also, JSavage37 didn't even bother to quote from the book he referred you to. That is lazy, not helpful.
Frankly, the guardian article was sensationalistic. However, it addresses the difference between epigenetics and Lamarckianism.
I didn't see your article as promoting Creationsim, and I doubt the other posters even read the article. But the title attacking evolution will invite a knee-jerk downvote here in /r/science.
It sounds like you now want an education in the whole process of science. The best way to get that is to read material directly on that topic. I suggest starting with Beak of the Finch but Jonathan Weiner. It is an account of a long term research project on Galapagos, but along the way Weiner does a very good job in showing the reader how science actually works. It is a Pulitzer Prize winner and very accessible. After than if you want something in depth, read, as I suggested, Science as a Process by David Hull. A deeper, much deeper, exploration into how science works and the philosophical underpinnings.
I don't see me as jumping the gun, I keep trying to get back to the topic.
There's a great book called The Beak of the Finch. It tells the story of how evolution has been observed occurring in the field, today, now, in the same Galapagos finch populations that Darwin observed.
If you find the finches even mildly interesting, read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/067973337X
Also endorse this book as a primer on mathematical thinking. No background necessary: http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Mathematical-Princeton-Science/dp/069111966X
Practice, practice, practice, practice. Getting good at maths is 90% equal to the practice you put in. People who seem "naturally" good at maths, most of the time, are just used to trying everything in their head and thus get more practice. Also, they may have done more in the past, and gotten used to using the smaller concepts they need to solve a bigger problem.
2 good books about learning: Waitzkin, The Art of Learning and Polya, How to Solve It.
Yes. Read this book, regardless of your major.
Putnam comp http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~saks/PUTNAM/
Also look at "Customers Also Bought" for books by Devlin, Mason etc
http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Mathematical-Princeton-Science/dp/069111966X/
Www.lpthw.org
Www.hackerrank.com
lots of www.google.com
And when he's not in front of a computer he should be reading
http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-It-Mathematical-Princeton/dp/069111966X (don't let the math scare him away if that's not his thing...at its core it's a book about how to solve any type of problem)
You might want a book like How to Solve It which will give you a general toolkit of problem solving techniques. It's not a textbook per se, but if you're struggling with how to even approach math problems then it might be a good first step.
Azcel wrote a good book on Fermat's Last Theorem and Wiles' solution. Amazon
Simon Singh's book on the same subject is also good, but Amazon has it at $10.17 whereas Azcel's is $0.71 better at $10.88.
Either way you get an enjoyable read of one man's dedication to solve a notoriously tricky problem and just enough of the mathematical landscape to get a sense of what was involved.
Another fun & light holiday read is Polya's 'How To Solve it' - read the glowing reviews over at Amazon
I recommend maybe doing more math instead. Or pick up a book called how to solve it . Alot of the things are easily translatable to programming and computer science really is mathematics as well. They're both related.
This is just my perspective, but . . .
I think there are two separate concerns here: 1) the "process" of mathematics, or mathematical thinking; and 2) specific mathematical systems which are fundamental and help frame much of the world of mathematics.
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Abstract algebra is one of those specific mathematical systems, and is very important to understand in order to really understand things like analysis (e.g. the real numbers are a field), linear algebra (e.g. vector spaces), topology (e.g. the fundamental group), etc.
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I'd recommend these books, which are for the most part short and easy to read, on mathematical thinking:
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How to Solve It, Polya ( https://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Mathematical-Princeton-Science/dp/069111966X ) covers basic strategies for problem solving in mathematics
Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning Vol 1 & 2, Polya ( https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Plausible-Reasoning-Induction-Analogy/dp/0691025096 ) does a great job of teaching you how to find/frame good mathematical conjectures that you can then attempt to prove or disprove.
Mathematical Proof, Chartrand ( https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Proofs-Transition-Advanced-Mathematics/dp/0321797094 ) does a good job of teaching how to prove mathematical conjectures.
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As for really understanding the foundations of modern mathematics, I would start with Concepts of Modern Mathematics by Ian Steward ( https://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Modern-Mathematics-Dover-Books/dp/0486284247 ) . It will help conceptually relate the major branches of modern mathematics and build the motivation and intuition of the ideas behind these branches.
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Abstract algebra and analysis are very fundamental to mathematics. There are books on each that I found gave a good conceptual introduction as well as still provided rigor (sometimes at the expense of full coverage of the topics). They are:
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A Book of Abstract Algebra, Pinter ( https://www.amazon.com/Book-Abstract-Algebra-Second-Mathematics/dp/0486474178 )
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Understanding Analysis, Abbott ( https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Analysis-Undergraduate-Texts-Mathematics/dp/1493927116 ).
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If you read through these books in the order listed here, it might provide you with that level of understanding of mathematics you talked about.
Do you understand what unknown variables are and why you are solving for them? Do you know why you are asked to move variables from one side to another?
Regarding problem solving...
If you are dead serious and really want to learn problem solving as a general skill, and are willing to read something that has a few examples a bit over your head but is extremely helpful in general, then may I suggest George Polya's How to Solve It. It is written at probably a high school geometry level but many of his discussions are generic enough that they should give you some insight into the problem solving process.
Essentially Polya wrote a book (maybe the book) on problem solving patterns i.e. when faced with a problem ask this set of questions and try strategy A or B, etc. He has I think 12 core questions to always ask. I found it very helpful myself. The first third or so of the book is a narrative of him showing how an ideal teacher would apply his teaching methods to guide students to discover concepts on their own.
A PDF of his original 1945 edition is available here: https://notendur.hi.is/hei2/teaching/Polya_HowToSolveIt.pdf
But a new edition paperback is on Amazon for $14, I have it and have made tons of pencil notes in the margins.
BTW if you do try to read it, you only need to know a few things to have the first part make sense. A "rectangular parallelipiped" (horrible name) is just a rectangular prism, so imagine it is your classroom's four walls floor and ceiling, etc. If you know how to find the diagonal length of a square or rectangle (the length of a line between two opposite corners) you probably know enough to basically follow along since that is the core of his example. If not, here's the trick, just divide the square (or rectangle) into two triangles and apply the pythagorean theorem. A huge part of his problem solving method revolves around asking yourself if you know of a similar problem with a similar pattern that you can adapt to solve your current problem. It's like being asked to find the area of a half circle, you don't know the formula, but you know the formula for the area of a circle, so you can use that as a base and adapt it to the problem of the half circle.
BTW 2: Math is hard. For everybody. People who are good at math paid for it in blood sweat and tears.
When I first went through it, I found it very verbose and too abstract for me. I was clearly not prepared for it.
Then I happened to read Gödel's proof, by Nagel and Newman, with an updated commentary by Hofstader. What a terrific book! Having gone through it, I began enjoying GEB.
There's tremendous depth in both books, and I look forward to iterating through these two alternately and getting more and more insights.
Godel's Proof is the original inspiration for Hofstadter. I find it a shorter but no less interesting read.
http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371
Those are/were my interests and I enjoyed [Logical Dilemmas] (http://www.amazon.com/Logical-Dilemmas-Life-Work-Godel/dp/1568812566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324312359&amp;sr=8-1), a thorough biography of Kurt Godel. [Godel's Proof] (http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6dels-Proof-Ernest-Nagel/dp/0814758371/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324312476&amp;sr=1-1) might be too basic but is a good read.
I am a Strange Loop is about the theorem
Another book I recommend is David Foster-Wallace's Everything and More. It's a creative book all about infinity, which is a very important philosophical concept and relates to mind and machines, and even God. Infinity exists within all integers and within all points in space. Another thing the human mind can't empirically experience but yet bears axiomatic, essential reality. How does the big bang give rise to such ordered structure? Is math invented or discovered? Well, if math doesn't change across time and culture, then it has essential existence in reality itself, and thus is discovered, and is not a construct of the human mind. Again, how does logic come out of the big bang? How does such order and beauty emerge in a system of pure flux and chaos? In my view, logic itself presupposes the existence of God. A metaphysical analysis of reality seems to require that base reality is mind, and our ability to perceive and understand the world requires that base reality be the omniscient, omnipresent mind of God.
Anyway these books are both accessible. Maybe at some point you'd want to dive into Godel himself. It's best to listen to talks or read books about deep philosophical concepts first. Jay Dyer does a great job on that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-L9EOTsb1c&amp;t=11s
BTW, if you want a relatively easy description of Godel's work, this book may be useful.
There's a great introduction to Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems, it's called and Gödel's Proof by Nagel & Newman. Hofstadter has wrote it's foreword. It's a very short book, 160 pages in total.
Amazon Link!
Here is a good book on trigonometry.
Here is one for algebra.
Here's another
Here's three very good books:
First, please make sure everyone understands they are capable of teaching the entire subject without a textbook. "What am I to teach?" is answered by the Common Core standards. I think it's best to free teachers from the tyranny of textbooks and the entire educational system from the tyranny of textbook publishers. If teachers never address this, it'll likely never change.
Here are a few I think are capable to being used but are not part of a larger series to adopt beyond one course:
Most any book by Serge Lang, books written by mathematicians and without a host of co-writers and editors are more interesting, cover the same topics, more in depth, less bells, whistles, fluff, and unneeded pictures and other distracting things, and most of all, tell a coherent story and argument:
Geometry and solutions
Basic Mathematics is a precalculus book, but might work with some supplementary work for other classes.
A First Course in Calculus
For advanced students, and possibly just a good teacher with all students, the Art of Problem Solving series are very good books:
Middle & high school:
and elementary linked from their main page. I have seen the latter myself.
Some more very good books that should be used more, by Gelfand:
The Method of Coordinates
Functions and Graphs
Algebra
Trigonometry
Lines and Curves: A Practical Geometry Handbook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0817636773/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HMQ9VU/
I like this book. https://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773
I second the recommendation to find someone more experienced to help you one-on-one. Is there any way you could hire a private tutor? A big benefit of a tutor is that they'll be able to point out the gaps in your knowledge and point you to relevant resources. This can be tough to do on your own or through web discussions. For example, let's say one thing that's holding you back is that you haven't memorized your times table. This would be a major problem and a blind spot for you that would be immediately obvious to me if we were working face to face, but it would be impossible to see from reading your reddit comments.
Let me make a few more concrete suggestions. First, experiment with different study techniques. Take a look at this comment and the linked video. Try the "Feynman Technique" (video) -- this is not easy but it's the only way to really get a solid understanding. Don't expect to be spoon-fed knowledge when you're watching videos: you need to be spending most of your study time with a pen and paper, puzzling out for yourself why things work.
Second, for algebra, I can recommend two textbooks:
Khan Academy is a good supplement, but in my opinion it's too passive to be used as your main resource. It doesn't encourage independent thinking and it has no problems (easy drill exercises don't count as problems.) You need to do lots of problems. In particular, you need to struggle through problems that you're not explicitly told how to solve ahead of time.
Finally, mechanical knowledge is incredibly important, but of course it does need to be built upon a conceptual foundation. For every technique you learn (like solving 2/3 = 3R) you should first be able to explain why the technique works in simple, obvious terms, and then practice it (invent your own problems!) and add it to your collection of techniques. Math is (arguably) simply a grab bag of such techniques together with explanations of why they work. It's often not obvious which technique to apply in a specific case: this can only be learned through experience. Avoid problem sets with ten variants of one specific problem -- they don't teach this skill! Instead look for varied problems which require creativity (Rusczyk's book is a good start.)
You might also want to check out /r/learnmath and #math on freenode if you have more specific questions.
As an introduction to Algebra I can recommend https://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486044711&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Shen+Algebra You may be also interested in https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Obsession-Bernhard-Greatest-Mathematics/dp/0452285259/ref=sr_1_1?rps=1&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486042204&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=prime+obsession+derbyshire
Moreover, it would be nice to watch these 'Youtube' channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart https://www.youtube.com/user/njwildberger
Try Gelfand's Algebra. The benefit of this is that it's rigorous with its definitions and includes proofs to further aid in your understanding. His other books are quite good as well from what I hear.
Gelfand's Algebra is interesting, encourages mathematical thinking, and has the additional advantage of being much more approachable than the books you've listed.
This is probably a much better place to start for someone who's interested in "starting from the basics."
I haven't read it yet, but Richard Courant's What is Mathematics? has been highly recommended to me.
Be brave, start with http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Ideas-Methods/dp/0195105192
I recommend going through some of the lessons on Brilliant, and here is Brilliant's quick exposition on the set of complex numbers.
I don't know what a softer explanation would entail exactly, but I would offer you the alternative perspective that the representation of complex numbers as two real numbers a+ib for the real numbers a and b is extremely useful because of the interpretation of the extension of the one dimensional real number line into the two dimensional complex plane.
Also, I recommend reading on a simple exposition of complex numbers from Richard Courant's "What is Mathematics".
What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods
"Succeeds brilliantly in conveying the intellectual excitement of mathematical inquiry and in communicating the essential ideas and methods." Journal of Philosophy
https://www.amazon.ca/What-Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Methods/dp/0195105192
From Richard Courant's "What is Mathematics", page 35, a constructive method is suggested.
Seriously this may be a great coming-of-age title for you: Infinite Jest.
Also since you got your first job check out The Wall Street Journal's Guide to Starting Your Financial Life. If you haven't yet appreciated math, I would suggest you do so as you're going to need it for any decent job these days. Detach yourself from Fallacious Thought.
Aside from The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, you might like to check out What Is Mathematics? An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods by Courant and Robbins, and Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning by three Russian authors including Kolmogorov.
Aleksandrov, Kolmogorov, Lavrent'ev. http://amzn.com/0486409163. Foundations to applicationsl.
Courant, Robbins, Stewart. http://amzn.com/0195105192. Tour of mathematics.
For more details on the firewall paradox, I like Leonard Susskind's lectures, and especially his book, The Black Hole War, which is very accessible. He focuses on the holographic principle as the solution (falling observer sees no big change, outside observer sees them destroyed by firewall), but as far as I know this hasn't been fully resolved yet.
Given our current understanding of physics, eventually the universe will experience a heat death and all the stars and all the black holes will evaporate. Some of the crazier theories posit that empty space will spontaneously decay to a lower energy state and cause another Big Bang of sorts.
Good further links for the interested:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-EilZ4VY5Vs
https://www.amazon.com/Many-Worlds-One-Search-Universes/dp/0809067226
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316016411/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=1XND76JQYDEBCX9ZK05Y
I'm going back to school right now to raise my GPA so that I can eventually become an astrophysicist. Never did much homework in high school... I can't take physics courses without the preliminary course credits first, so my best sources are books written by physicists and the only one I've got is this one. I'm almost finished with it, though, and looking for suggestions on what to read next. Any thoughts?
For those who want to know more: Susskind wrote a readworthy book on the "war": http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-War-Stephen-Mechanics/dp/0316016411/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1312269099&amp;sr=8-2
You all might enjoy:
The Black Hole War
Summary / Discussion
@Amazon
Although parts of the discussion on this thread need to differentiate with information in the 'real world' sense, and knowledge / inferred information.
I know I’m showing up a bit late, but I absolutely have to recommend The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind:
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-War-Stephen-Mechanics/dp/0316016411
I know it might sound like an overly-specific or technical book, and the title gives the impression that the author has a chip on his shoulder about Stephen Hawking, but I can assure you that neither of those things are the case!
The story of the “war” itself is really just about how Susskind and Hawking had a friendly scientific disagreement over whether it’s theoretically possible to retrieve something after it enters a black hole. They discussed it for years, and eventually it was Stephen Hawking who admitted he was wrong.
But the reason I’m mentioning the book is that it does an amazing job of explaining everything. Susskind knows that in order to write a story about the black hole war that people will actually find interesting, he has to explain black holes, gravity, light, and quantum physics in ways that normal people can understand. And he does!
The book isn’t amazing because it’s a story about someone who proved to Stephen Hawking that he was wrong. It’s amazing because when you’re finished with it, you’ll actually understand why he was wrong, and why it’s so important.
Other people have suggested some great books, and it’s never too late to go back to school, but if you want a book that will really spark your passion and motivation, I can’t recommend this book enough.
Now I’m all hyped and feel like I should read it again...
There's a cool popular science book that mentions that even in 90s-00s he was quite unwilling to accept the wrongness of one of his theories when it was proven to be false by a group of physicists.
If you're really interested in the subject, one of the best books on black holes I've ever read it, appropriately titled, The Black Hole War(My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics) by Leonard Susskind.
Would the observer actually see anything? If he would see the probe, wouldn't that mean that black holes shouldn't be black because of the imprints of stars that fell into it (if it's a large enough hole of course, otherwise it would've been shredded to bits).
If the light waves of those stars are stretched to extremely low frequency radio waves, does that mean that the "imprint" of the probe on the black hole is invisible to us?
I recently read The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind who states that the information of the probe (the bits of probe itself actually) did came out of the black hole in Hawking radiation? He also states that the horizon of a black hole (or the area one planck-length above it) is extremely hot...
Okay, this question is kind of messed up right now, so again: how is a black hole black if information comes back to the observer?
There was a book that is basically the series in print. Carl Sagan wrote it. I have not read it personally, but fully plan on it. I have seen the series and fully endorse it as well. But I understand some people absorb and learn better through reading, so for posterity:
Wikipedia,
Amazon
I liked Carl Sagan's Cosmos too!
Cosmos
Yes it is. Written by Carl Sagan.
To answer your second question, KhanAcademy is always good for algebra/trig/basic calc stuff. Another good resource is Paul's online Math Notes, especially if you prefer reading to watching videos.
To answer your second question, here are some classic texts you could try (keep in mind that parts of them may not make all that much sense without knowing any calculus or abstract algebra):
Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell
The History of Calculus by Carl Boyer
Some other well-received math history books:
An Intro to the History of Math by Howard Eves, Journey Through Genius by William Dunham, Morris Kline's monumental 3-part series (1, 2, 3) (best left until later), and another brilliant book by Dunham.
And the MacTutor History of Math site is a great resource.
Finally, some really great historical thrillers that deal with some really exciting stuff in number theory:
Fermat's Enigma by Simon Sigh
The Music of the Primes by Marcus DuSautoy
Also (I know this is a lot), this is a widely-renowned and cheap book for learning about modern/university-level math: Concepts of Modern Math by Ian Stewart.
Well, regarding Fermat's Last Theorem, it indeed was written by Aczel, as could easily be determined by following the link in the article. However, it looks like there are 100s of books with a similar name. The one your read by Simon Singh was called: Fermat's Enigma.
You weren't misled, you just "misremembered".
Initially I'd avoid books on areas of science that might challenge her (religious) beliefs. You friend is open to considering a new view point. Which is awesome but can be very difficult. So don't push it. Start slowly with less controversial topics. To be clear, I'm saying avoid books that touch on evolution! Other controversial topics might include vaccinations, dinosaurs, the big bang, climate change, etc. Picking a neutral topic will help her acclimate to science. Pick a book related to something that she is interested in.
I'd also start with a book that the tells a story centred around a science, instead of simply trying to explain that science. In telling the story their authors usually explain the science. (Biographies about interesting scientist are a good choice too). The idea is that if she enjoys reading the book, then chances are she will be more likely to accept the science behind it.
Here are some recommendations:
The Wave by Susan Casey: http://www.amazon.com/The-Wave-Pursuit-Rogues-Freaks/dp/0767928857
Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh: http://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-Problem/dp/0385493622
The Man who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman: http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Loved-Only-Numbers/dp/0786884061/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1405720480&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=paul+erdos
I also recommend going to a book store with her, and peruse the science section. Pick out a book together. Get a copy for yourself and make it a small book club. Give her someone to discusses the book with.
After a few books, if she's still interested then you can try pushing her boundaries with something more controversial or something more technical.
You can start with "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" >> http://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-Problem/dp/0385493622 . Is a great book, I read it several times.
Another vote for The Code Book, as a book targeted more towards the general public, I thought it was excellent. I read it in high school and it's one of the reasons I decided to go into math/CS in university!
Fermat's Enigma (also by Singh) is another one I enjoyed.
A great book on Andrew Wiles and Fermat's Last Theorem is Simon Singh's Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem.
This whole thing reminds me of a book I read a few years back about a guy who proved Fermat's Last Theorem. Fascinating stuff. Really gives one an insight into how beautiful the human mind is.
Calc 3 was series for us, 4 was multivariable. We were quarters with summer quarter being optional so it was really trimesters for most people. Vector calc was basically taught from the book Div, Grad, Curl and All That. So it was useful prior to going into electrodynamics, which was also 4th year.
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EDIT: Added link.
There's a book called Div, Grad, Curl and All That, here is an Amazon link. It's an informal approach to vector mathematics for scientists and engineers and it's pretty readable. If you're struggling with the math, this is for you :) All their examples are EM too.
It's also a good idea to get a study group together. The blind leading the blind actually do get somewhere. :)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0471725692/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=2UCFQZHNW5VVF&amp;coliid=I1RPWVCSMOOV09 is one good suggestion, I've seen around here. It's on my wishlist and the book that I intend to work from.
Now I always struggled with vector calculus and its motivations. So I have this one waiting for me as well http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393925161/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=2UCFQZHNW5VVF&amp;coliid=I20JETA4TTSTJY since I think it covers a lot of the concepts that I had the most trouble with in calc 3
Div, Grad, Curl, and All That is a good way to shore up your knowledge of vector calc.
When I took EM in addition to Cheng the professor suggested getting Div, Grad, Curl and all of that. I found that to be alot of help in solidifying the math and intuition needed.
About 2 years ago I started really getting into wild plants, sense then I have learned many plants edible, medicinal, and poisonous.
this is where I started https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1465766026&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=petersons+field+guide
along with youtube.
Also, I forgot to mention. If you want vegetables on the cheap, there's a few ways to go about it. Try going to a flea market that sells vegetables. Often they will sell an entire basket (hand sized basket) of vegetables for a dollar or two. For carrots that's not a big deal, but for peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc...it's wonderful.
You can also offer to cook for someone. Since your ingredients are on the cheap, you can do the hard work of cooking and gain some donations without giving a lot of materials up.
Occasionally, if you study, you can find some harvestable herbs (not weed) growing wild. It's not unheard of to stumble on wild onions, and many wild plants are in fact edible, but always always always check leaf type, leaf grouping, and look alikes. One of my favorite old books is the Petersons Guide to Edible Plants. (https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1469328116&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=edible+wild+plants)
Obviously, don't buy it now. Check it out from the library. You'd be amazed at what you can eat to stay alive once you know what to use, and how to prepare it.
My Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants is excellent for putting anything dangerous on the same page as its edible lookalikes. If it's applicable to your region of choice, I'd recommend it.
Learn how to identify and use wild plants within your area. There are many edible species that grow wild and in abundance; this is a practice that essentially every human generation prior to this past century was skilled at yet it is becoming a lost skill. Get a guide to edible plants and spend time out in the wild learning to identify which is which. /r/whatsthisplant is also a good resource for identification and there is a large (20k+) group on Facebook which is an excellent resource full of knowledgeable gardeners and naturalists.
Hello, neighbor.
Weeds of Kentucky and Adjacent States
Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians
Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians
The Cherokee Herbal: Native Plant Medicine from the Four Directions
PDF - A guide to medicinal plants of Appalachia - US Forest Service
edit: oh yeah...A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America
Southeast Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles
Disclaimer - I've only used a few of these, but I've ogled the rest at the library and health food store.
As a s some what seasoned forager I would really recommend the [Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants.] (http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Edible-Wild-Plants/dp/039592622X/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418240695&amp;sr=1-2-spell&amp;keywords=pedersen+feild+guide) It is very easy to use and great for beginners. It's uses drawings instead of photos for better clarity and has a simple and intuitive identification system. It is also a very good idea to have 2 or more different guides for cross referencing.
I bought this recently. It will be very useful when society breaks down during the next zombie apocalypse.
What level are you? If you're physics degree level then I'd suggest Feynman's Lectures on Physics as an excellent introduction. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-boxed-set/dp/0465023827/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1408125805&amp;sr=8-5&amp;keywords=lectures+feynman
What you're looking for is The Richard Feynman Lectures on Physics.
EDIT: Just realized these might actually be heavier than you're looking for, but I think there's no better introdcution to the world of Physics than through Feynman.
It's great that you want to study particle physics and String Theory! It's a really interesting subject. Getting a degree in physics can often make you a useful person so long as you make sure you get some transferable skills (like programming and whatnot). I'll reiterate the standard advice for going further in physics, and in particular in theoretical physics, in the hope that you will take it to heart. Only go into theoretical physics if you really enjoy it. Do it for no other reason. If you want to become a professor, there are other areas of physics which are far easier to accomplish that in. If you want to be famous, become an actor or a writer or go into science communication and become the new Bill Nye. I'm not saying the only reason to do it is if you're obsessed with it, but you've got to really enjoy it and find it fulfilling for it's own sake as the likelihood of becoming a professor in it is so slim. Then, if your academic dreams don't work out, you won't regret the time you spent, and you'll always have the drive to keep learning and doing more, whatever happens to you academically.
With that out of the way, the biggest chunk of learning you'll do as a theorist is math. A decent book (which I used in my undergraduate degree) which covers the majority of the math you need to understand basic physics, e.g. Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Special Relativity, Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics and Electromagnetism. Is this guy: Maths It's not a textbook you can read cover to cover, but it's a really good reference, and undoubtably, should you go and do a physics degree, you'll end up owning something like it. If you like maths now and want to learn more of it, then it's a good book to do it with.
The rest of the books I'll recommend to you have a minimal number of equations, but explain a lot of concepts and other interesting goodies. To really understand the subjects you need textbooks, but you need the math to understand them first and it's unlikely you're there yet. If you want textbook suggestions let me know, but if you haven't read the books below they're good anyway.
First, particle physics. This book Deep Down Things is a really great book about the history and ideas behind modern particles physics and the standard model. I can't recommend it enough.
Next, General Relativity. If you're interested in String Theory you're going to need to become an expert in General Relativity. This book: General Relativity from A to B explains the ideas behind GR without a lot of math, but it does so in a precise way. It's a really good book.
Next, Quantum Mechanics. This book: In Search of Schrodinger's Cat is a great introduction to the people and ideas of Quantum Mechanics. I like it a lot.
For general physics knowledge. Lots of people really like the
Feynman Lectures They cover everything and so have quite a bit of math in them. As a taster you can get a couple of books: Six Easy Pieces and Six Not So Easy Pieces, though the not so easy pieces are a bit more mathematically minded.
Now I'll take the opportunity to recommend my own pet favourite book. The Road to Reality. Roger Penrose wrote this to prove that anyone could understand all of theoretical physics, as such it's one of the hardest books you can read, but it is fascinating and tells you about concepts all the way up to String Theory. If you've got time to think and work on the exercises I found it well worth the time. All the math that's needed is explained in the book, which is good, but it's certainly not easy!
Lastly, for understanding more of the ideas which underlie theoretical physics, this is a good book: Philsophy of Physics: Space and Time It's not the best, but the ideas behind theoretical physics thought are important and this is an interesting and subtle book. I'd put it last on the reading list though.
Anyway, I hope that helps, keep learning about physics and asking questions! If there's anything else you want to know, feel free to ask.
Mein armes Hirn, soviel Marketing, Namedroppingscheisse in einem Artikel, und das war nur der Bericht dazu?
Boah, erstmal Frühstück, Hauptgang und Dessert
und den Dorn Bader als Snack.
If you have the cash to blow, the Feynman Lectures on Physics are a great resource, not just with EM, but everything you learn in undergrad courses.
You're not clear about what you want to learn in chemistry -- do you want to do more practical stuff (organic synthesis / physical chemistry) or do you just want to know how molecules/atoms behave (organic chemistry ,biochemistry, physical chemistry , quantummechanics?
Wrt to doing synthesis 'on your own': these days, doing chemistry outside a lab is seen as something 'very dangerous', because only trrrrists and clandestine drug-making chemists are interested in chemistry.
odd enough, just thought it would be those http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0465023827/ref=dp_otherviews_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;img=1
For those that just think it's funny because it might be something you see in a textbook, it's not just that. This joke is a direct reference to Fermat's Last Theorem, which was proposed in 1637 and the text above was scribbled in the sidebar of the paper. It wasn't actually proven until 1994, 350+ years later.
Interestingly enough, it's unlikely that the current proof, which I think was around 300 pages, was anything like Fermat's proof that he alluded to (and possibly never had, which makes him an amazing troll). The current proof used methods that were not developed until recently, and I believe the author of the proof even developed some new mathematics in order to solve it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_Last_Theorem
Here's a great book on it, and the guy that finally provided the proof. Definitely worth reading, it's not boring at all: http://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-Problem/dp/0385493622
Try this.
But really it comes with practice, the more you use it, the better you get at reading it and comfortable with it. In my case at least.
The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul- edited by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett.
Already been mentioned but:
Neuromancer - genre defining, gritty, required reading. ;)
Snow Crash - Excellent, hugely enjoyable characters, good sci fi
Also good and haven't been mentioned:
Headcrash by Bruce Bethke - bizarre, silly, fun cyberpunk (for instance, full sensoral cyberspace connection is done through a rectally inserted probe..)
The Mind's I by Douglas Hofstadter - Excellent collection of short stories about cognitive machines
Wyrm by Mark Fabi - "Interweaving mythology, virtual reality, role-playing games, chess strategy, and artificial intelligence with a theory of a Group Overmind Daemon susceptible to religious symbolism, first-timer Fabi pits a group of computer programmers and hackers against a formidable opponent who may fulfill end-of-the-world prophesies as the millennium approaches."
Hijacked is too strong a word, but I think two points are notable. First, arguably most of the really popular and notable books on evolution released in the last twenty years were penned by New Atheists proper or by authors who basically fit the New Atheist mold but aren't one of the four specific authors. A big part of the reason for that is simply Richard Dawkins. He's a popular writer and a biologist, so it was almost inevitable that he'd pen books about Darwin and that they'd hit the bestsellers lists. And if it were limited to Dawkins, I'd think nothing of it, but there's Dennett and Shermer, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Harris release one before long. Another part of the reason is that a number of the other books about Darwinian evolution that have sold well in past decades were penned by creationists like Michael Behe, so a certain measure of response is, from my perspective at least, welcome. At that point, it's about market share, and we don't want creationists having too big a piece of the market share. Their point of view is, after all, problematic to say the least. If it weren't for my second point, it wouldn't even be problematic that a) popular books on evolution are basically split between creationists and New Atheists, and b) that New Atheists make up such a large share of that market.
But my second point is this: New Atheists aren't just popularizing or "standing up for" Darwinian evolution; they're attaching a political and ideological agenda to that effort, and that runs several risks, the most obvious being that it can polarize people against evolution, as some commentators have warned it might do in Muslim countries. To my mind, the more insidious risk is that, once you've connected a scientific theory to a political or ideological effort, it becomes all to easy for its patrons to see it in those terms even when it has nothing to do with that effort. Without much noticing it, pro-Darwinians may start seeing barely articulated associations as part and parcel of evolution, until evolution is something more than a scientific model. Dawkins, for example, has turned evolution into a theological disproof with the subtitle of "The Blind Watchmaker". The title of Shermer's "Why Darwin Matters" sums up the achievement of evolutionary theory as a form of polemic against intelligent design theory. Dawkins, at least, is close enough to the professional practice of biology that he probably doesn't need reminding that evolution isn't really about atheism, but all of these guys are writing books for people who don't have the continual reminder of working in the field where evolutionary theory is most functional.
I say none of this in defense of the Guardian article, but I do think there's something to be said for the idea that our society stands to lose by leaving it up to the New Atheists to give evolution its popularly received meaning.
The Cosmic Serpent is a good book on the subject.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cosmic-Serpent-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642
John Taylor did a great job at writing this book, I suggest it as a good read. It is still used in physics classes to this day: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Error-Analysis-Uncertainties-Measurements/dp/093570275X
It boils down to this: Uncertainty in percent is effectively an error.
So if your left leg does 200 Watts (As measured by some mythical leg powermeter device that is 100% accurate) you will get a measurement of +/- 2% from the Stages unit meaning the reading drifts 196 to 204 (left leg only, remember that). Now if you double that (as Stages does) you get a reading of 392-408. This gives you a variance of 4% (assuming left leg power = right leg power).
As for your other question: The claim of accuracy needs to be made about their measurement, not their calculated value. The calculated value (as you have pointed out) is based onan assumption of both legs putting out the same power. You can't account for that in marketing.
I think OkCupid data is all fair and good. It represents a certain set of people, those that are comfortable with doing online dating on one particular website. Now if we look at the whole population, including those that do not feel the need to use a dating site, we might see a different result.
If you take in account a proper bell curve you'll see that the population of men that are taller than women 5'10 or greater is actually about half the population. so that majority, if one at all, is a small majority. There are two separate bell curves: one for men and one for women. So is it really about a scarcity of suitors; if not, what could it be?
It could be something like men on a certain dating website are intimidated because of previous social interactions skewing the data or a smaller population of tall women on said site. All in all it is more often than not a person making the decision to rule out a specific group.
So, why don't we blame shallow people instead people with a certain physical trait?
Here's a nice book on errors
TL;DR: you don't have data, you have a graph. Shallow people are to blame.
> This is objectively untrue. How in the world did you come away with that conclusion?
You literally just google scholar'd "economics quantifying uncertainty" and assumed things would be there. There isn't, did you look? It's all about the psychological concept of uncertainty like "ohhh I don't know what the Fed does next" instead of measurement uncertainty. Do you know what that is? John Taylor wrote a good book on it.
> The statistic only applies to experimental economics
What? "Economics is only non-replicable when we actually try it out in real life." I'm actually starting to feel bad for stressing you out with this argument.
> I assume you wouldn't tell me that psychology is all fake. Then again, maybe you would.
Nearly all of psychology is fake.
> 5) Let's summarize. One study of 18 papers in experimental economics found that 60% were replicated, 40% were not, and you're ready to throw out the entire field?
Let me be very clear. Experimental economics is the shining star of economics. It is the upper bound. 1000x as credible as macro-econmics. And it still fails to replicate 40% of the time.
> Even studies in medicine often fail replication
Medicine has a bad problem with replication as well due to low sample sizes necessary due to high experiment cost and p-hacking due to pressure to publish.