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For 20 years I've been saying "I'm going to pull out my old university maths books and relearn what I did during those painful 4 years". For years and years I kept procrastinating until this weekend. I'm starting with the simplest and my favourite, Calculus by Michael Spivak (the classic!) and, well...
I don't feel as smart as I used to.
I seriously thought I'd pick up the book (and this is an entry level to Calculus) and breeze through it in an hour or so, nodding wisely, reminiscing over proofs by induction, mucking around with limits, breezily finding the derivative of tan(Θ) from first principles, and then crack a beer and feel that I still had it.
No, that didn't happen. I got to chapter 2 and proved d/dx(xn) = n.x(xn-1) and then had to have beer and a lie down.
Anyone else opened that box past glories and been slapped with the reality that yes, that stuff was and still is hard work?
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Same experience, same subject. A while back I finally tossed most of my books from college, with the exception of math and a few computer science. Looking at the math books rather forcibly reminded me that I had long ago recycled that storage partition in my brain to store old movie dialogue. Practically speaking, much more useful.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I tossed my calculus and linear algebra texts long ago but still have abstract algebra, combinatorics, and graph theory texts, which I found more interesting and somewhat more useful. I've reopened them a few times and my experience was similar to yours, though maybe not quite as depressing. 
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I'm teaching a friend's high-school age kid software engineering. This week we're going to study sorting: bubble, binary insertion, quick and merge. Bubble is trivial, but I'm dreading the others. What's worse, he's very bright and thinks I know what I'm talking about. 
/ravi
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  I'd say that merge is also rather trivial, but after that I'm very happy not to be in your shoes.
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Yep. 
/ravi
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Loved the link!! Where was YouTube when I was learning the Quick-Sort? Oh right ARPANET didn't have YouTube.
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Playing cards are useful tool. Shuffle them, deal them out and then demonstrate one of the algorithms to physically sort. Get student to have a go.
Then show the algorithm's pseudocode and show how it links to the physical process of sorting the cards. Allow only one card to be moved at a time or you will end up combining statements into one, you'll need to designate a space on the table as register/memory location.
If you want to demonstrate why a computer needs these algorithms, whereas a human does not, turn the cards face down and allow only two card faces to be seen at any one time while applying the algorithm.
Practice beforehand
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You're so screwed
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Understatement!
/ravi
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One of my Engineering profs told us,
"After you graduate you will forget half of what you learned. Also, you will only use half of what you learned. The trick is to forget the correct half."
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
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Just curious, why would you hold onto those books for so long?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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How long have you held onto your wife?
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Have you told your wife that you are comparing her to a bunch of old books?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Well, it's better'n a bunch of old bags, innit?
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ZurdoDev wrote: Just curious, why would you hold onto those books for so long?
Russian torrents are your friend!
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ZurdoDev wrote: Just curious, why would you hold onto those books for so long?
Have you taken a look to the new books?
I did (helping out the son of a friend). And there are very, very few that are better than mine back then.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Nelek wrote: Have you taken a look to the new books?
No.
Nelek wrote: very few that are better than mine back then.
But are you ever going to read your old text books?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Yes. I have had the need a couple of times, due to things I was working on. I have not and won't re-read the whole book, for sure I will probably never touch again some chapters. But it doesn't mean that the whole book is not worth to keep.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Nelek wrote: the whole book is not worth to keep.
To me it is. Just google it. You can find anything now.
We tend to store too much stuff.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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I had edited my message, but since you were that fast answering... I post it here:
Quote: Well, actually the most important things are my notes included inside to explain how to look at some things and what I needed to understand it back then. Those are priceless for me
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Those books are like old, old friends. I had some of the best and worst times with those books.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: Those books are like old, old friends
My question still stands. Why hold onto them?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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