Learning to love maths?

steddyeddy

Is it possible for someone who isn't a natural at maths (me) to learn to love it as a subject? I'm working with NMR and would love to be able to tackle the maths involved behind the theory or resonance and spin.

TheBody

steddyeddy wrote: »

Is it possible for someone who isn't a natural at maths (me) to learn to love it as a subject? I'm working with NMR and would love to be able to tackle the maths involved behind the theory or resonance and spin.

What do you mean by "NMR"?

Anyway, difficult question to answer. I imagine for most mathematicians, one of the big appeals is the difficulity of it. You can struggle for years and years but when the breakthrough comes, the sense of achievement is immense.

What I suggest you do is start right at the beginning. Every year I see final year undergraduates, hesitant with things like rules of indices and fractions etc. Have a read of some popular maths books to find inspiration. My favourite is The Man Who Knew Infinity.

It takes a lot of time, effort and patience. Keep with it though.

steddyeddy

TheBody wrote: »

What do you mean by "NMR"?

Anyway, difficult question to answer. I imagine for most mathematicians, one of the big appeals is the difficulity of it. You can struggle for years and years but when the breakthrough comes, the sense of achievement is immense.

What I suggest you do is start right at the beginning. Every year I see final year undergraduates, hesitant with things like rules of indices and fractions etc. Have a read of some popular maths books to find inspiration. My favourite is The Man Who Knew Infinity.

It takes a lot of time, effort and patience. Keep with it though.

Nuclear magnetic resonance. In particular I'm using it to detect glycolipid structures. NMR is a method where we use certain atoms whose nucleus has "spin" to detect atomic structure.

steddyeddy

By the way thank you for the book recommendation I will get a hold of a copy! I should say I don't actually need to know the maths involved but I would really love to understand it.

TheBody

What sort of maths do you need? Perhaps we can recommend some good books to help you out.

steddyeddy

Hey the body. I apologies for the late reply I wasn't really on this the weekend.I suppose I would be looking for a book which gives me an idea of the maths behind quantum mechanics. I know it won't be an easy read ha ha!

nesf

steddyeddy wrote: »

Hey the body. I apologies for the late reply I wasn't really on this the weekend.I suppose I would be looking for a book which gives me an idea of the maths behind quantum mechanics. I know it won't be an easy read ha ha!

This is the book from my Quantum Mechanics modules from over ten years ago: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quantum-Mechanics-Prof-B-H-Bransden/dp/0582356911/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370939956&sr=8-1&keywords=quantum+mechanics+bransden

Honestly, I think studying the mathematics without looking at the theory itself is fairly pointless. I'd apologise for the price but I figure you are already far too well aware of the price of academic texts these days.


There may have been better books published since, quantum was never something I was hugely interested in so I haven't paid any attention.

carlab_ie

I used to hate Math as a kid. But now I see it as a big part of Nature and learned how to love it. Hope this can help!

steddyeddy

nesf wrote: »

This is the book from my Quantum Mechanics modules from over ten years ago: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quantum-Mechanics-Prof-B-H-Bransden/dp/0582356911/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370939956&sr=8-1&keywords=quantum+mechanics+bransden

Honestly, I think studying the mathematics without looking at the theory itself is fairly pointless. I'd apologise for the price but I figure you are already far too well aware of the price of academic texts these days.


There may have been better books published since, quantum was never something I was hugely interested in so I haven't paid any attention.

Brilliant thanks Nesf! That price seems resaonable to be honest. My biochemistry texts books were around 70-80 euro so as you say I'm not shocked by the price!

I can't wait to get stuck in.

steddyeddy

carlab_ie wrote: »

I used to hate Math as a kid. But now I see it as a big part of Nature and learned how to love it. Hope this can help!

It does indeed. I have met one or two lecturers of maths who have told me the same thing. Thanks for your help.

nesf

steddyeddy wrote: »

Brilliant thanks Nesf! That price seems resaonable to be honest. My biochemistry texts books were around 70-80 euro so as you say I'm not shocked by the price!

I can't wait to get stuck in.

You're in a far better place than I was ten years ago. If you're confused about some mathematical technique, ten minutes googling normally lands you with more explanatory material than you could ever need. Back in my day such resources were sparse and library books covering introductions to certain mathematical methods might be quite thin on the ground in the library. :P

Also, when doing a section, do a search to see if any professor (usually U.S. based but not always) has put up some notes on the area in the public part of their university's website. It's a bit hit or miss but sometimes you can turn up really nice material.