Starting the Path to becoming a Theoretical/Astrophysicist from Middle School

[Kevin_Axion]

I'm pretty sure YOU ARE the one getting ahead of yourself... You're talking about "basic" calculus, when you aren't even in calculus!

I'm not necessarily sure what point you are trying to address since I already have the mathematical grounding to understand calculus where as the original poster doesn't. It is quite simple to learn calculus without taking the course, but it's clear that you conform to the standard procedures of education - being taught. Self-education isn't a complexity and can easily be achieved by anyone. When I'm saying getting ahead of yourself I was concerning his idea that he must prepare to become an astrophysicist in grade 8. This is obviously unrealistic and your comment was unnecessary.

 

[lompocus]

http://www.siemens-foundation.org/en/

That's the Siemens corp scholarship/competition thing. Almost identical to the Intel STS, I believe. I was going to enter it, but deadline passed. Meh, I didn't spend enough time on the thing anyway, among other things that deterred me from entering, like wasting the judges' time xD...

Check this forum's "Books" subform.

You made an error in your first post. You test score is excellent for you age; however, just don't tell people your tests scores. Humility goes a long way. (I know you just wanted to gauge yourself to whatever standard you think exists for your age; for future reference, then!)

Here is a topic in computer science you might be interested in: "Perlin Noise." You won't understand terribly much of it initially, but come back to it after a year and see how you've progressed.

I second (or third, or fourth'd) this book: Serge Lang's "Basic Mathematics"

*edit* Link for perlin noise page: http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/models/m_perlin.htm

 

[twofish-quant]

do you think I could read and understand Calculus and Pizza (I'm in a gifted program, we are basically doing the 10th grade math course).. Same question for Basic Mathmatics.

I think you can if you want. The important thing here is not to overstress yourself, but at the same time, don't stop yourself from doing what you think is fun. If you enjoy learning math, then there are a lot of books that you can use to teach yourself calculus, but don't press yourself too hard if it stops being fun.

Keeping science and math fun and interesting is something that you'll have to learn to do.