Any websites that explain maths in real terms?

parc

...like say for instance 4^2

4 squared could be used to lay a carpet in a room 4x4 metres. That's pretty simple and everyone knows it. But lets say a quadratic equation. What is that applicable to?

What could Ax^2 + Bx + C be used for. What is integration used for? What's differentiating used for? I now that stochastic numbers occur in nature and surds are used in architecture, like the ratio 1:1.618 is pleasing to the eye, etc.

There must be a good website explaining these with maybe some visual examples too?

Thanks

TheBody

Most calculus textbooks have an explination of where things like differentiation and integration comes from. A lot of maths things came from people trying to describe physical phenomenon.

I'm not aware of a book or a website that just talks about these things without the maths stuff. If there is any topic in particular you want to ask about, I'm sure you can get your answers here.

LeixlipRed

Wikipedia!

TheBody

LeixlipRed wrote: »

Wikipedia!

lol.......good thinking!!

Eliot Rosewater

I think Wikipedia maths articles are bad generally but even worse for this kind of thing. Case in point: there's a whole article on matrix multiplication, but suppose a curious budding mathematician wanted to know why matrices are multiplied the way they are? No luck with Wikipedia for any nice understanding like that. All bland stuff seemingly copied from textbooks and lectures with a particularly annoying separation of the "technical" from the non-"technical".

/rant

LeixlipRed

Ah it's ok for someone interested in just finding out the basic: "a definite integral is the area beneath the curve, yadda yadda yadda".

actuallylike

Integration gets the area under a curve. In engineering with a stress strain curve, the area underneath is the toughness of the material so integrating the curve gives you the toughness of the material, a real answer.

parc

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

I think Wikipedia maths articles are bad generally but even worse for this kind of thing. Case in point: there's a whole article on matrix multiplication, but suppose a curious budding mathematician wanted to know why matrices are multiplied the way they are? No luck with Wikipedia for any nice understanding like that. All bland stuff seemingly copied from textbooks and lectures with a particularly annoying separation of the "technical" from the non-"technical".

/rant

Yeah wiki is not something I'd look towards for this particular thing. It provides a link a term. All you need is one sentence to explain it but they provide about 1000 words. Sometimes I go else where to get the simple explanation.

There must be a website explaining maths like this. How it exists in the real world

MoogPoo

Best bet is just get a book on calculus. it will probably start off setting up problems why differentiation would be needed, then cover things you need first like limits and things first. But it's up to you to really have an intuitive understanding of it past there cause the book would be too big if everything had to constantly be translated into pictures. But try to get a picture in your head. I got an unreal book on undergraduate level maths/physics though, Roger Penrose The Road to Reality and it just glosses over the maths and talks about what it all means conceptually.

axle108

http://www.khanacademy.org/

http://www.palgrave.com/stroud/stroud6e/index.html

i have found above links helpfull. the second link on stroud especially. it has a personal tutor link

OP if you get a book on physics (a textbook as opposed to a popular science book), you'll see most of those things applied.

I mean, you won't be able to apply differentiation to laying carpet, but you can apply it to understanding why a football moves how it does (up to a certain point).

BESman

Deleted User wrote: »

OP if you get a book on physics (a textbook as opposed to a popular science book), you'll see most of those things applied.

I mean, you won't be able to apply differentiation to laying carpet, but you can apply it to understanding why a football moves how it does (up to a certain point).

I knew a lad who did his maths thesis on applying differentiation to football free kicks and the way the ball moves.

LeixlipRed

Link to thesis online?

BESman

LeixlipRed wrote: »

Link to thesis online?

I don't think its online yet, but I'll find out and post a link when it is.

LeixlipRed

Cheers!