I've finished my review of sequences and progressions, with both the White Algebra Book and the 1958 algebra book. I was encouraged that I was able to remember the material and solve the problems without the bewilderment and anxiety that accompanied my first encounter with them. Sequences and progressions are one of my favorite bits of math so far. (Trigonometric identities have been my least favorite.) There is a kind of dancelike quality to working with them, even though I don't actually do any dancing. It also feels like sports such as tennis or baseball, where your hits go in sequence after sequence. I am personally very un-athletic, unlike the physical marvels I so often find among the science and math types who regularly run marathons, practice martial arts, and climb mountains. The only exercise I get is on paper. But I can feel the affinity between math, science, and manly athletic achievement.

The last thing I did in the 1958 book was finding the sums of infinite geometric progressions where the common ratio is numerically less than 1. I believe that this put me over the limit from algebra into calculus, so here I am. Now 1958 is back on the shelf (with the slide rule) and I have finally gotten out my calculus books.

I'll be starting with two introductory texts. The first, which was given to me by one of my Friendly Mathematicians almost a year ago, is called WHAT IS CALCULUS ABOUT? by W.W. Sawyer. My Friendly Mathematician has been patiently waiting all this time for me to stop dithering with college algebra and read this book. Well, the time has come. The second book was given to me by another friend who is not a mathematician but who knows plenty of them. This one is called HOW TO ENJOY CALCULUS by Eli S. Pine. The Pine book bears this dedication from the author:

"This book is dedicated to all those budding students who wanted to be Scientists, Engineers, Physicians, Chemists, Biologists, and even Mathematicians, who have had their dreams and careers destroyed because Calculus stopped them dead in their tracks.
I hope this book has an important part in saving the dreams of so many dedicated and hopeful students from now on!"

With that kind of sentiment, how could I refuse? Even if I have no dreams to save or career to destroy, I welcome Dr. Pine's invitation. I will also be working from a group of college texts which were given to me by another one of my Friendly Mathematicians, a college professor who had more textbooks than he could ever use. These books contain all the problems which I will want to solve in endless ranks and rows. That's the only way I know to learn this material, solve and solve and solve some more.

Along with Pine and Sawyer (who will generate quite a lot of mathematical planks and sawdust) I will be reviewing my earlier attempts at basic (junior high) physics. This means Newton's laws again, and mass and momentum and vectors and acceleration. I did quite a lot with acceleration and changing speeds some time ago, and it is time I reviewed it. In fact, some of the work I did with figuring out the rate of acceleration could be considered introductory calculus, so I have actually already done some of it.

Posted at 3:09 am | link