Books with fully solved problems vs just final results?

[user079622]

What is your opinion about books with fully solved problems vs just final results?
Advantages and disadvantages?

 

[Mark44]

My strategy is to take a book with fully solved problems

Not many books around like this, in my experience, which includes teaching lower-division college mathematics for 20+ years.

 

[user079622]

Not many books around like this, in my experience, which includes teaching lower-division college mathematics for 20+ years.

Can you suggest a few ?

 

[Mark44]

Can you suggest a few ?

Can I suggest a few books with fully worked problems? No.
Can I suggest a few books with some answers listed in the back? Yes, if you're asking about mathematics books.
You haven't stated what kind of books you're talking about -- mathematics, physics, engineering, whatever.

 

[user079622]

Can I suggest a few books with fully worked problems? No.
Can I suggest a few books with some answers listed in the back? Yes, if you're asking about mathematics books.
You haven't stated what kind of books you're talking about -- mathematics, physics, engineering, whatever.

Mathematics

 

[robphy]

I used books like this when I was an undergraduate

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rea+problem+solvers&tag=pfamazon01-20
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=schaums+outline&tag=pfamazon01-20

It's helpful to see how some problems can be solved.
However, they're not necessarily the best solutions.
Often many solutions can be improved by,
e.g.,
carrying out a methodical approach which could apply to many problems,
offering very different approaches to the same problem.
etc..

 

[user079622]

I used books like this when I was an undergraduate

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rea+prob...azon01-20&tag=pfamazon01-20&tag=pfamazon01-20
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=schaums+...azon01-20&tag=pfamazon01-20&tag=pfamazon01-20

It's helpful to see how some problems can be solved.
However, they're not necessarily the best solutions.
Often many solutions can be improved by,
e.g.,
carrying out a methodical approach which could apply to many problems,
offering very different approaches to the same problem.
etc..

Is Rea better than Schaums? Rea dont have authors, who write this?
Why is called Schaum's, german?

 

[robphy]

Is Rea better than Schaums? Rea dont have authors, who write this?
Why is called Schaum's, german?

Which is better is a matter of taste and what one is looking for.
You have to judge for yourself.... maybe the comments would shed some light.
(When I was an undergraduate, such comments were not available as they are these days on a webpage.)

You can find an unofficial history of Schaum's Outlines at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaum's_Outlines

 

[vela]

I’ve seen REA books, but I don’t recall having ever read one. I think Schaum’s outlines provide both worked out problems and problems with just answers. It did in the ones on physics at least.

 

[user079622]

I used books like this when I was an undergraduate

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rea+problem+solvers&tag=pfamazon01-20&tag=pfamazon01-20&tag=pfamazon01-20

Has Rea all problems fully solved?

@vela
Yes, Schaum has both solved and answers.

 

[user079622]

Indeed these are workbook, book usually have theory..

 

[robphy]

Has Rea all problems fully solved?

"Each problem ...."

 

[desertshaman]

Hi :)
I successfully self-educated in algebra using a Schaum's book with several 100 solved problems. This helped me a great deal when I got an opportunity for more formal education.

 

[mathwonk]

In my experience, a workbook with complete solutions is good for someone who is way behind, i.e. knows very little, and is trying to get back in the game. I was helped in this way, by Schaum's, during my first semester back in school, taking the mostly cook-book diff eq course whose prerequisite (basic calculus) I had done poorly in, before being required to leave school and work for a year. As I caught up, such detailed hand - holding material was less necessary, and less useful, and it became better to work out more details and ideas for myself.

 

[WWGD]

Can you suggest a few ?

Schaum's, REA, have fully-solved problems, which gives you the option of just looking at the final answers. If you feel brave-enough, try to scrape the Topology Atlas Q&A board , no longer active and now unsecured. Given they're in .txt format and are barely visited according to the IT team of the hosting site: Yorku in Canada, you may scrape it; I received permission.

 

[renormalize]

If you feel brave-enough, try to scrape the Topology Atlas Q&A board , no longer active and now unsecured. Given they're in .txt format and are barely visited according to the IT team of the hosting site: Yorku in Canada, you may scrape it; I received permission.

Is it even online anymore?

 

[WWGD]

Is it even online anymore?
View attachment 360082

It's not a safe site and it's not managed anymore, so I don't want to provide a link to it here. It's at http:// at.yorku.ca . The IT dept at the host site, York University in Canada. gave me the permission to scrape it "If I could". It's mostly basic text , so hard to hide anything dangerous in it.

 

[renormalize]

It's not a safe site and it's not managed anymore, so I don't want to provide a link to it here. It's at http:// at.yorku.ca .

That's exactly where I went and got no response. Does it work for you?

 

[robphy]

You could try your luck at
https://web.archive.org/web/20160429081257/http://at.yorku.ca:80/cgi-bin/bbqa .

 

[WWGD]

You could try your luck at
https://web.archive.org/web/20160429081257/http://at.yorku.ca:80/cgi-bin/bbqa .

Great job. Thing is links aren't working. I suspect there may have been some server-end scripts that were run on the fly used, needed, to display the text or maybe even serve the question/requests. Edit: Attn: @Greg Bernhardt : Greg, remember the Topology Atlas site we exchanged about that contained several solved problems, that was hosted by Canada's York U? It was orphaned around 2019 , then "Fathered" ( I guess) at some point , by the Wayback Machine. @robphy was nice-enough to find the Wayback link for us. Thing seems to be that the links are flat, except for the ones that take you from the main site to the individual "subsites". others. I suspect the site is flat because the scripts that opened up the questions lived in the server, rather than client side, and have been lost. Do you think we can make it a project to recreate the server-side links, recreate the missing html links l and maybe host it here or in another site/server; maybe in a subdomain ? I can't do it full time, but maybe we c @GregBernhart , I won't try anything until I get an explicit permission from York U

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Thing is links aren't working.

I think this is a wayback machine crawler limitation. I don't see a path forward here unless York wants to hand us the data explicitly.

 

[WWGD]

I think this is a wayback machine crawler limitation. I don't see a path forward here unless York wants to hand us the data explicitly.

You don't think we can build back end CGI that would mimic the process of fetching and incorporating questions asked into the links? I mean, the site uses just basic .html and .txt; nothing too fancy.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

You don't think we can build back end CGI that would mimic the process of fetching and incorporating questions asked into the links? I mean, the site uses just basic .html and .txt; nothing too fancy.

I'm not seeing most threads being indexed in the wayback machine. Where do we get the data?

 

[WWGD]

I'm not seeing most threads being indexed in the wayback machine. Where do we get the data?

From https://web.archive.org/web/20160429081257/http://at.yorku.ca:80/cgi-bin/bbqa

Thing is the site is inert because the scripts that served the requests lived in the server side and just disappeared