Math Journal

I thought I’d make public my least readable of “articles”, which is nothing more than the daily notes on my journy as the World’s Oldest Math Major.

  • Monday, 12/11/2023:

  • Tuesday, 12/12/2023

  • Wednesday, 12/13/2023

  • Thursday, December 14, 2023

    • Continue double and half angles.

  • Weekend December 16-17, 2023

    • Began looking at Graph theory, in Introductory Discrete Mathematics (which is not the right tool for that or much of anything).

    • Found this Playlist for Graph Theory with Python, and began on first couple of videos.

    • Last item from searching for a review of Introduction to Graph Theory, which looks quite good.

  • Monday December 18, 2023

  • Tuesday, December 19, 2023

  • Wednesday, December 20, 2023

  • Thurs Dec 21, 2023

    • Spent some time memorizing half-angle and double angle formulas. Flash cards. Have them down pretty well, needs more attempts.

    • Some Desmos – trying to figure out triangle tool. Not good. Also tried Geogebra.

  • Friday Dec 22, 2023

  • Saturday Dec 23, 2023

    • Review Half Angle / Double Angle Formulas

  • Sunday, Dec 24, 2023 NocheBuena

  • Tuesday, December 26, 2023

  • Wednesday 27 Dec 2023

  • Thursday 28 Dec 2023

  • Friday 29 Dec 2023

    • Reading How to Ace Calculus

    • LogReview.ipynb, reworking markdown Log notes with some Python.

    • Did some quadratic equation problems.

    • Began reading The Transcendental Tangle, “that awful book”.

  • Saturday 30 Dec 2023

    • Work on exponential growth and decay functions from Transcendental Tangle.

    • A bit puzzling why we need \(e\) for this, so maybe follow up in future with Exponential Growth and Decay (prof Leonard)

    • Sympy already there in online python on CodeSolid.

  • Sunday 31 Dec 2023

    • Begin Intro Graph Theory.

    • One easy rate of decay problem Python.

  • Monday 1 Jan 2024

    • Finish Graphs chapter of Trudeau’s Introduction to Graph Theory (No exercises yet, except mentally on the first two.). A great read.

  • Tuesday 2 Jan 2024

  • Wednesday 3 Jan 2024

  • Thurs 4 Jan 2024

    • Work a bit on Euler’s formula (Trudeau ~ pp 101-104), and on paper.

    • More quadratic work, solve 10 chat-gpt-generated factorable quadratics using “diamond method”.

  • Friday 5 Jan 2024

    • Reading Trudeau

    • Same 10 quadratic fns from Thursday, this time using quad. formula.

  • Sat 1/6/24

    • Reading Trudeau - coloring.

    • Some exponentials with common base. (From this video)

  • Sun 1/7

    • Reading Trudeau only.

  • Monday 1/8

    • Tomorrow’s the day!

    • “Finish up” rough reading (no exercises and portions of difficult passages skipped) of Trudeau.

    • Intro to Solving Logarithms and Exponentials with, as usual, problems worked by hand.

    • Take mandatory “sign off on policy” brightspace quiz.

  • Tuesday, 1/9

    • First day of Calculus class, Calc I, MAT 271 with Emma Scothorn. “Rain” day, met virtually.

    • Finished about 60% or so of the math homework for this week. So far so good. Online (Cengage + Webassign) tools are pretty good. “Master It” button is your friend.

  • Weds, 1/10/2014

    • Lot of time (about 5 hours) spent on homework 2.3. (Need to do more problems 9, 11, and 12 especially).

    • New calculator came in, learned how to plot and do some basic things.

  • Thursday 1/11

    • First day in person Calc I Mat 271. Units 2.2 and 2.3 on limits (review – I was ahead on homework this week). Calculator skills awful for a test, so…

    • When I got home figured out how to substitute values into an equation, to solve functions, where the cubed kerjigger is, how to not use minus when I mean negative since the device is dumb, and a few other things along the way. Need about an hour a day to get good at this.

  • Friday 1/12

    • A smackerel of How to Ace Calculus

    • Redo in class exercises from Thursday, and problematic homework from section 2.3. Nice!

    • Begin working on Homework and reading for section 2.4. Good progress.

    • Begin Reading Robert Stoll’s Set Theory and Logic (sample)

  • Saturday 1/13/2024

    • Continue on Stoll’s Set Theory

    • About 40 minutes or so on homework # 2.4, Continuity and One-Sided Limits. Made some progress.

  • Sunday 1/14

    • Continue homework # 2.4. Only one thorny problem left and one to redo.

    • Continue a bit of Stoll’s Set Theory.

  • Monday 1/15

    • Troubleshot nasty problem from yesterday – first answer was almost correct, but wrote “log” instead of “ln” in the answer box. :(

    • About halfway done with problem set 2.5 – so more than a week ahead. :)

    • Associated video on infinite limits, etc.

  • Tuesday 1/16/24

    • Holiday - no class.

    • Begin 3.1 work

  • Wednesday 1/17/24

    • Continue work on exercises 3.1

    • Continue reading Stoll

  • Thursday 1/18/24

    • Attend class

    • Meet with teacher re # 2.5 # 5

    • Finish 3.1 homework and attendance this week. :)

  • Friday 1/19/24

    • Reading up on Coq

    • Download signature assignment, having trouble with files

    • Finally able to begin work on this signature assignment and pretty much finish it. It’s in OneDrive and can be edited further on Microsoft 365.

  • Saturday 1/20/24

    • Reading Boyer on history of math.

    • Reading Russell Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy; first intro to Peano’s axioms.

  • Sunday 1/21/24

    • Continue reading Boyer, enjoyed especially ~ pp. 51-52 on Pythagoreans and Euclid’s cool method for doing a golden section of a line segment, which he called finding the extreme and mean segment. Began some reading and playing around with regular solids, found the formula for the interior angles of any regular polygon, given n = number of sides, interior angle formula is as below: $\( \frac{(n - 2) * 180}{n} \)$

E.g. for a triangle, \(\frac{(3 - 2) * 180}{3} = \frac{180}{3} =60^o\)

For a square, \(\frac{(4 - 2) * 180}{4} = \frac{360}{4} = 90^o\)

For a regular pentagon, \(\frac{(5 - 2) * 180}{5}= \frac{540}{5} = \frac{540}{5} = 108^o\)

  • Monday, January 22, 2024

    • Continue reading Boyer.

  • Tuesday, 1/23/24

    • Class Calc I

    • Review previous homework, 2.2 and most of 2.3. Retry problems and build list of problem areas.

    • Continue Boyer.

  • Wed, 1/24/24

    • Lots of homework, 2.3 and finish 2.4. Revisit some problem areas.

    • Some reading of Boyer.

  • Thursday 1/25/24

    • Class

    • Section 2.5 review

    • Reading Euclid’s Elements (Casey)

  • Friday 1/26/24

    • Reading Euclid’s Elements (Casey)

    • Section 3.1 review

    • Did study guide as a practice exam. Got 14 done, believed OK. So maybe a 93. Need to look at again.

  • Saturday 1/27/24

    • Reading Euclid and Boyer

    • Plan math BA see Google sheets

  • Sunday

    • Reading Euclid

    • An easy proof (my “first”) of “the bisectors of supplemental angles are 90 degrees apart.”

  • Monday

    • Go over results of Study guide “exam” on Friday. Send corrections to Emma Scothorn.

    • Learn how to work problems involving giving the equation of the line at a point, assuming you have a function and need to find the tangent line at some x value.

  • Tuesday 1/30

    • Attend class

    • Meet with Emma Scothorn on misc issues.

    • Study for exam

  • Weds 1/31/24

    • Work through some problems in Larson, slope of line using def of deriv. Also work on some Intermediate Value Theorem problems.

    • Reading Boyer, also look up some conic section material, run into something called differential geometry – very cool.

  • Thursday 2/1

    • Exam Day Calc 1. Scored 103 of 100 points. Sweet.

  • Friday 2/2

    • Begin homework, studying next section.

    • Read Boyer

  • Saturday 2/3

    • Reading Boyer

    • Revisit MatPlotlib

    • Review some conic section basic equations

  • Sunday 2/4

    • Working in SymPy – more SymPy than math

    • Reading Clawson’s Mathematical Mysteries

  • Monday 2/5

    • Reading

    • Homework

    • Reading Calvin C. Clawson’s Mathematical Mysteries: The Beauty and Magic of Numbers. This is an and well-written (popular) overview of Number Theory.

  • Tuesday, 2/6

    • Class basic derivative rules

    • Homework

    • Reading Clawson

  • Wednesday 2/7

    • Begin homework on Product/Quotient rules – SLOW

    • Reading Clawson

  • Thursday 2/8

    • Class on Product and quotient rules and pos and velocity. Finish product/quotient homework. Nice!

    • Reading Clawson

  • Friday 2/9

    • Notebook for the article on Matplotlib for Book I Proposition I of the elements.

    • Reading Clawson

  • Saturday 2/10

    • Reviewing Chain Rule with Nancy Pi’s video. Work through the problems except last one, see notes.

    • Reading Clawson

  • Sunday 2/11

    • Light on math per se :( – just working on Symplot idea (SymPy simplified Matplotlib plotting)

  • Monday 2/12

    • Reading Clawson

    • Homework on chain rule. About 10 out of 17 problems

  • Tuesday 2/13

    • Class - chain rule.

    • Finish 1/2 homework for next week, chain rule problems. (Webassign 3.4)

  • Wednesday 2/14

    • Some reading in Stoll

    • Work on 3.5 webassign and review some implicit derivative videos.

  • Thursday 2/15

    • Class – Implicit differentiation

    • Boyer reading, plus reading up on synthetic division, Horner’s method, and lattice multiplication. Neat.

    • Homework 3.5 webassign, still more to do. Headache. :(

  • Friday 2/16

    • Finish WebAssign Homework

  • Saturday 2/17

    • Reading Boyer History of Mathematics

  • Sunday, 2/18

    • Reading Boyer History of Mathematics

  • Monday, 2/19

    • Reading Boyer History of Mathematics

    • Learning about Derivatives of Inverse Functions and elsewhere, and next few videos.

    • 2/3 (so far) of Webassign 3.6 homework for Calc I.

  • Tuesday 2/20

    • Class on differentials of inverses, inverse trig fns.

    • Finish homework for that class

    • Reading Boyer History of Mathematics

  • Wednesday 2/21

    • Begin working on related rates – viewing only so far

    • Reading Boyer History of Mathematics

Note: Here there was a big hiatus in entries, though not in Math, for several days (until 3/3). On 3/3/24 I caught up.

  • Thurday 2/22

    • Class

    • Finish up related rates problems

    • Reading Boyer

  • Friday 2/23

    • Work on Test 2 Study guide Calc 1

    • Somewhere in here began “What is Mathematics”

    • Boyer

  • Saturday 2/24

    • Boyer and What is Math

  • Sunday 2/25

    • Boyer and What is Math

  • Monday 2/26

    • More studying for Calc 1 test 2

    • Reading Boyer

  • Tuesday 2/27

    • Class – review for test 2

    • Study for test

    • Boyer

  • Wednesday 2/28

    • Final studying for test

  • Thursday 2/29

    • Calc 1 test 2. Got a grade of 102/100 with bonus question. :) !!!

  • Friday 3/1

    • Reading Boyer History of Math

  • Saturday 3/2

    • Reading Boyer History of Math

  • Sunday 3/3

    • Reading Boyer History of Math

  • Monday 3/4

  • Tuesday 3/5

    • Reading Boyer History of Math

    • Finish article

    • Begin Viewing Calc One Lecture 4.1 Professor Leonard on Antiderivatives & Integration

  • Wednesday 3/6

    • Reading Boyer

    • Viewing Calc One Lecture 4.1 (several parts)

  • Thursday 3/7

    • Reading Boyer

    • Reading on series, infinite series, Wikipedia on Taylor Series etc. Scratching the surface.

  • Friday 3/8

    • Reading Boyer

  • Saturday 3/9

    • Reading Boyer

    • Organize Calc I notes (Ok, that’s minor!)

  • Sunday 3/10

    • Reading Boyer

  • Monday 3/11

    • Reading Boyer

    • Get started on topics for homework due. Extrema on an Interval, Rolle’s Theorem and MVT, Increasing and Decreasing Functions and First Derivative Test. Start with this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V239IIoGVT8.

  • Tuesday 3/12

    • Class – extrema

    • Finish 4.1 homework, most of 4.2

    • Reading Boyer

  • Wednesday 3/13

    • Reading Boyer

    • Some “What is Math” (not a lot)

    • Work on 4.3

**************** GAP ****************** With frowny face: :( **************** GAP ******************

  • Monday, 3/25

    • OK, let’s not even try to fill in that 12 day gap in any day-by-day way. Twelve days! That’s bad. But here are some highlights from that period:

      • I’m primarily working on What Is Math now, having finished Boyer

      • Friday and over the weekend of 3/23-3/24 I did some more Logarithm review. It seems I need to do that every few months, or just work a big plate of problems until I have completely internalized them. I may need to break down and write an article on them.

      • Continuing with Homework / classes for Calculus I, of course.

      • Began an article on exploring basic number theory with Python.

Another gap filled in 3-25 to 4-1

  • Tues, 3/26

    • Class. Around here begin sweating the load on Exam 3

    • Study for Exam 3

  • Weds 3/27

    • Study for Exam 3

    • Reading Courant.

  • Thurs 3/28

    • Class. Study for exam 3 in Calc 1

    • Reading Courant.

  • Friday 3/29

    • Study for exam 3 in Calc 1

    • Homework

    • Reading Courant.

  • Sat 3/30

    • Study for exam 3 in Calc 1

    • Homework and Lab

    • Reading Courant.

  • Sunday 3/31

    • Study for exam 3 in Calc 1

    • Reading Courant.

  • Monday, 4/1

    • Study for Exam 3

    • Reading Courant.

  • Tuesday 4/2

    • Exam 3. Hardest yet

    • Catch up math journal