Recent content by ktm

Under the subject drop-down menu, there's no option for mathematics. =( Not that this matters to the OP, since he's asking about physics, but eh...

My take on things, which is of course subject to error. Math www.artofproblemsolving.com -- the forums can be very fun and informative Learning elementary high school math and problem-solving is important. Don't poo-poo the geometry and algebra you learn in your classes; if you ever take high...

1. I did not state it incorrectly. What I said has many implications, which I did not mention, so that he could figure it out for himself. 2. If I suggested that he figure out the proof of infinite primes for himself, why would you post a proof of it? 3. "slightly wrongly"?

If you take the product of the first n primes and add 1, then it gives you a number that's not divisible by any of the first n primes. It's not necessarily a prime itself (though it could be), but it is an interesting number in its own right. This is concisely explained by modular arithmetic...

I reviewed the thread and realized there were only a few posts that bugged me. It seems these few posts set the atmosphere for me in this thread. I'm sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I was also bugged that it seemed like posters here were persuading the OP to change his lifestyle. I think...

At first I didn't want to post here, but I'm really tired of all these stupid responses about how mathboy is studying too much and needs to get a life. I would wager that 9 out of 10 of the people who make these posts are academically mediocre. And yes, a 4.0 GPA can still be mediocre; GPA does...

bravernix, 1. I wasn't just responding to you. I was saying that well-selected, accredited online courses can provide very valuable resources for learning. But I do agree that attending college provides more resources to the student. 2. He said that "online schools are about [his] only...

I don't understand all this hype about how online courses are a waste of time and money -- it even sounds like a kind of elitism on the part of those attending college. If it's a well-selected, accredited course then you still get access to professors and TAs, indications of your learning...

mathwonk, First of all, I admit I was speculating (while appearing too sure of myself), as I am not a professor myself and so I'm not in a very good position to make such estimates. Your opinion is probably much more valid than my speculation. I'm sorry for speculating, and for most likely...

A little, but not that much more. A professor is usually responsible for the lectures, creating the homework, creating the tests/quizzes, and the final grades. The homework can just be assigned out of a textbook, though it doesn't take much time to come up with problems at the class level. The...

Invictious, what you said doesn't make sense. Teaching is a very small burden for professors at research universities. My math professor teaches one class at a time and I believe my physics professor teaches two classes at a time. This amounts to 2-5 hours in the classroom per week. I'm sure you...

I'm going to assume that high school physics contests are like math contests. Just doing rote exercises is a bad idea. Rote exercises are good for developing technique and application, but they don't make you smart at physics and they also don't make you understand the concepts too well. You...

A function is differentiable at a point if the derivative exists at a point. From the derivative you got, the derivative exists at 0, as seen from just plugging in 0 and knowing that f(x) \neq 0. Thus it is differentiable at 0. That is all.

That's a bad question. You can't say analysis is harder than algebra or vice versa. Analysis and algebra, along with topology, are the three main fields of math, with other fields on the side of course. If you're considering two classes, one in algebra and one in analysis, then the question of...