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Banner advertising on our site currently available from just $5! # Need advice about mathematical question. Old topic! Guest, the last post of this topic is over 60 days old and at this point you may not reply in this topic. If you wish to continue this conversation start a new topic. 8 replies to this topic ### #1Supernovae Members - Reputation: 111 Posted 01 September 2012 - 02:29 PM Greetings I have been digging in to some information i need with my upcoming game. I have noticed that all the programming math is very confusing and i don't know how to read it. I have basic math skills from school, but this stuff is WAY out of my league. So i decided to ask here about it, because i know there are quite a few good math people here. So i would need to know what books to buy from amazon.com, that explane to me how to read these math formulas. I have attached an image with an example. I would be very happy if someone would point me to the right books, so i can start to study them. Thanks alot. #### Attached Thumbnails Sponsor: ### #2japro Members - Reputation: 887 Posted 01 September 2012 - 02:39 PM You might want to look at books about calculus and linear algebra. ### #3Memories are Better Prime Members - Reputation: 769 Posted 01 September 2012 - 05:33 PM Sigma notation, trig and functions are generally covered in pre-calculus, but I think to be on the safe side you will want to look at Calculus too at least for infinite series. Books I would recommend Stewarts Pre-Calculus Larsons Calculus It would be best to cover pre calculus first, maths can be intimidating at times but honestly the more you learn the less you will feel discouraged, the best way to understand maths imo is through applications, its all well and truly nice being able to evaluate formulas but it all only truly makes sense when you see it applied to real life scenarios, Calculus books tend to be better at this as real life scenarios are usually changing Edited by Dynamo_Maestro, 01 September 2012 - 05:34 PM. ### #4Supernovae Members - Reputation: 111 Posted 01 September 2012 - 08:26 PM Sigma notation, trig and functions are generally covered in pre-calculus, but I think to be on the safe side you will want to look at Calculus too at least for infinite series. Books I would recommend Stewarts Pre-Calculus Larsons Calculus It would be best to cover pre calculus first, maths can be intimidating at times but honestly the more you learn the less you will feel discouraged, the best way to understand maths imo is through applications, its all well and truly nice being able to evaluate formulas but it all only truly makes sense when you see it applied to real life scenarios, Calculus books tend to be better at this as real life scenarios are usually changing WOW! How can the authors of "Stewarts Pre-Calculus" justify price of 260$ for a book with 397 pages. Now thats a rip off if i ever seen one. Thanks for this advice, i gotta save for few months to get it....

Thank you

EDIT: AH! Thank god for internet, got both books for "free".

Edited by Supernovae, 01 September 2012 - 08:31 PM.

### #5way2lazy2care  Members   -  Reputation: 782

Posted 01 September 2012 - 09:04 PM

WOW! How can the authors of "Stewarts Pre-Calculus" justify price of 260$for a book with 397 pages. Now thats a rip off if i ever seen one. Thanks for this advice, i gotta save for few months to get it.... Welcome to the wide wide world of textbooks. ### #6Bacterius Crossbones+ - Reputation: 9620 Posted 01 September 2012 - 11:16 PM WOW! How can the authors of "Stewarts Pre-Calculus" justify price of 260$ for a book with 397 pages. Now thats a rip off if i ever seen one. Thanks for this advice, i gotta save for few months to get it....

You can also get each page individually for $1.5 discount, saving you a total of seven dollars!! Front and back covers are included for an extra$7.

The slowsort algorithm is a perfect illustration of the multiply and surrender paradigm, which is perhaps the single most important paradigm in the development of reluctant algorithms. The basic multiply and surrender strategy consists in replacing the problem at hand by two or more subproblems, each slightly simpler than the original, and continue multiplying subproblems and subsubproblems recursively in this fashion as long as possible. At some point the subproblems will all become so simple that their solution can no longer be postponed, and we will have to surrender. Experience shows that, in most cases, by the time this point is reached the total work will be substantially higher than what could have been wasted by a more direct approach.

- Pessimal Algorithms and Simplexity Analysis

### #7Cornstalks  Crossbones+   -  Reputation: 6995

Posted 01 September 2012 - 11:27 PM

EDIT: AH! Thank god for internet, got both books for "free".

While that is indeed a lot of money, I don't condone your piracy.
[ I was ninja'd 71 times before I stopped counting a long time ago ] [ f.k.a. MikeTacular ] [ My Blog ] [ SWFer: Gaplessly looped MP3s in your Flash games ]

### #8Memories are Better  Prime Members   -  Reputation: 769

Posted 02 September 2012 - 01:37 AM

Sigma notation, trig and functions are generally covered in pre-calculus, but I think to be on the safe side you will want to look at Calculus too at least for infinite series.

Books I would recommend

Stewarts Pre-Calculus
Larsons Calculus

It would be best to cover pre calculus first, maths can be intimidating at times but honestly the more you learn the less you will feel discouraged, the best way to understand maths imo is through applications, its all well and truly nice being able to evaluate formulas but it all only truly makes sense when you see it applied to real life scenarios, Calculus books tend to be better at this as real life scenarios are usually changing

WOW! How can the authors of "Stewarts Pre-Calculus" justify price of 260\$ for a book with 397 pages. Now thats a rip off if i ever seen one. Thanks for this advice, i gotta save for few months to get it....

Thank you

EDIT: AH! Thank god for internet, got both books for "free".

I should also mention, James Stewart is often criticised for his methods in teaching both Calculus / Pre-Calculus, his Calculus book is a pain in the ass unless you already are comfortable with calculus, his pre calculus is not as bad but be warned it does not hold your hand, it will give you many examples + exercises but explain only what is necessary.

Now for me I like the way his pre-calculus book structure works, it gets straight to the point and theres often very little reading, but a lot of people have complained that it doesnt explain in detail, I dont think this is the purpose of the book but I do believe anyone new to concepts will understand, it just wont be as friendly, probably would explain the minimum.

As for book prices, typically e-books are cheaper and better to work with than paperback, not because of the environment, but because they are far easier to manage, search and bookmark.

As for piracy, I have mixed views on piracy, if the product is good and you are happy with it, buy it, however lets face it buying stuff these days is a gamble and returning is a pain, I dont want to start a piracy debate here, but the way I see it, the global return / refund policies are enough a reason why anyone should download pirated stuff, some people call it theft, some call it no risk sales, I dont of course download any pirated crap now though but dont have any issues with my past methods.

PS. The book should be over 1k pages, not sure what you were looking at :/

Edited by Dynamo_Maestro, 02 September 2012 - 01:40 AM.

### #9ISDCaptain01  Members   -  Reputation: 1448

Posted 03 September 2012 - 12:12 AM

Dude dont waste your time/energy/money with those thick and dry textbooks. Go to khanacademy.org. He will teach all the math you want and in an understandable way. All for free, and he provides practice problem. If you need books. I recommend calculus for dummies by Mark Ryan, way more effective than any textbook will ever be.

Edited by ISDCaptain01, 03 September 2012 - 12:16 AM.

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