The Should I Become a Mathematician? Thread

mathwonk

i want to recommend a precalculus book by one of the greatest masters of all time, euler:

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-A...566063&sr=1-10


and i also recommend as the greatest geometry book of all time, the one by euclid.

http://www.amazon.com/Euclids-Elemen...0566630&sr=1-1


and a free online copy:
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/jav.../elements.html

hartshorne also has a nice companion volume, stemming from his course at berkeley,

called geometry, euclid and beyond.
http://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Eucli...0566675&sr=1-1


i just realized my previous book recommendations do not follow closely enough the famous dictum (by abel?) to read the masters, not the pupils. inded i have not done this enough myself in my career.

mathwonk

i have just ordered copies of archimedes' and euler's works. maybe next time i lecture on archimedes' method i will actually know what i am talking about.

timur

How can a foreigner become a math graduate student in US? May be it is too practical question but can you please give a suggestion or a link?

mathwonk

most of our best rgad students are foreigners. come on down! apply to any school by looking at their websites. try uga.math.edu

J77

Thanks mathwonk.

I haven't seen this complete edition -- and at only $25 it's extremely good value, even with the European delivery charge!

teleport

Mathwonk, what would u say of the decision of a math prof to, in preparation for a test for his students, suggest doing every single exercise in the book in addition to the ones given by him in class, for him to end up giving a problem in the test worth 1/3 of the mark, which covered nothing of his suggested exercises for prepartion, that had only been briefly mentioned in class, and was anything but trivial (in fact the single hardest question of the test).

In fact, I felt proud that I did almost all of his suggested problems for prepartion, given this is my first year doing pure math, but felt demoralized after all the work to see that all that was almost not covered at all in the test. So I had to use pure ingenuity, no knowledge at all, to figure out the problem. But this wasn't enough. This is not my main complain, however. I tend to see it as, if you have done the work, you should somehow be rewarded by being albe to use the knowledge/techniques gained from it.

Weird, somehow I feel sympathy with what he did. He didn't care much of what I know. I would say he cares more with me thinking and being creative. This is definitely a wake up call for me. I will be looking for some revenge on the next test. I can now better predict the next one.

mathwonk

well when i was astudent i had similar stories but i do not have any now that i am a prof. usually now it is that the student does not realize that the test was essentially identical to, or a direct outgrowth of, the exercises that were assigned.

i would say however that you probably learned more studying for this test than anyone in history. so it cant be aLL BAD.

mathwonk

by the way i also just bought myself a copy of the works of archimedes, so i can judge for myself how similar his ideas were to what we call calculus today.

teleport

In this case I can't be more explicit of how disconected that question was from my preparation; because of this, no, it wasn't a direct outgrowth of the exercises assigned. If that were the case, I would have painfuly accepted it without bringing it up to debate. In fact, there was not a single exercise assigned with the "theme" of the problem.

Well I don't know if I prepared more than anyone else in history for the test since I managed to do the problems in two days over the weekend. But of course, how can I prove this when the test didn't give me the chance to. A test that tests? The topic of the problem was briefly mentioned in class, not a single exercise assigned given by the prof related to it, nor even mentioned in the book. Of course, given the absence of any attenuation by the prof on the significance of this topic, I naturally ignored it. Oh well, I just don't want to think more of this.

mathwonk

you nonetheless remind of m y junior course in probability where the prof had assigned a very difficult problem for hw which no one got, so he devoted a whole class to its solution. unfortunately i was absent from that oneclass. then on the test the sob gave that as a problem worth 25% or more of the whole test. i got a B , and in spite of my best efforst made a B in the course, when i wanted so badly an A.

but so what? I still became the world famous intellect I am considered to be today.

teleport

Ha, that shall raise my mood. Thanks.

This situation reminds me of a talk between two criminals (wait). One criminal is confessing to the other that he is going to have a child. He also mentions that his dad didn't treat him well in his childhood. So the other criminal asks: so that means you are gonna give your son everything you father didn't give you? The other criminal looks back surprised and says: no! That means it is my time to have fun!

This might actually apply to my prof and ur probability one.

teleport

So yea, those profs might have decided that if they were going to spend time grading, they might as well have some fun along the way, even though they probably went through the same things as students. BTW, my prof has made it official, he expects us to think even in tests! It was bizarre: he said in class he was "tricky" while giggling suspiciously. Oh boy, this is gona be some ride.

mathwonk

youll be fine, prepare and hang loose

timur

Thanks for the link! Looks promising. Actually I just came to US to do postdoc and the question was for my brother. He finished a master level programme in math in Holland and now he is in Japan working as a programmer. I know he wants to study in grad school but he seems to need some encouragement. That is why I am looking for a way to get him down here.

mathwonk

well holland is also superb. many of my good friends are in holland, and wonderful mathematicians: frans oort, van de ven, chris peters, gerard van der geer, edouard looijenga, steenbrink,......(formerly) gerald welters,

pivoxa15

Does one need talent in maths in order to do reserach in pure maths, especially the more abstract branches like algebra or topology?

One reason I think so is because a less talented person would need to do many mechanical exercises which may not be be possible in research because there might not be any. ANd offcourse no answers at the back of the book.

mathwonk

as in all activities, talent helps greatly and may be essential for top quality work, but persistence and luck can do a lot.