Elementary Mathematics Lesson 1 Homework

Here are some homework results from Di. Here we will call the Stop Reading and Do Something exercises  SRADS.

SRADS #1 - A number is a representation of a quantity of something.

SRADS #2

 
SRADS #3: We label them with numbers with what they represent like 3 apples or 2 squares.

Elementary Mathematical Methods Course

Elementary Mathematical Methods Session 2 Tonight at 8 PM Central Time on Skype and TeamViewer 8.

Elementary Mathematics Course Lesson 1

Di has proposed a Mathematica program to demonstrate some ideas from set theory. We worked on it together and it is now embedded in Lesson 1 at www.madscitech.org/elemath.

The Flame Challenge to Explain Time

If you do not know about this, you can find the details here: http://www.centerforcommunicatingscience.org/the-flame-challenge-2/

Here is my shot at it:

Hours, minutes, seconds, years, these are some of the labels that we use to measure time. In this way time is thought of as a way to keep track of what happens. Each thing that happens is stamped with a time. This is the basis for all of science—measuring when things happen.

Whenever something happens, something else caused it. Lightning causes thunder. Hunger causes a pain in the stomach. The desire to know causes a question. In science we believe that causes happen at some time and events at a later time.

From this you can imagine that our experience passes from event to event. If we think about it long enough, we will see that we can sort the things that happen into events that have already happened—what we call the past; things that are happening right now—the present; and things that have yet to occur—the future.

We can think of each moment of time as a snapshot, with the entire universe frozen forever. What happened five minutes ago will forever exist in that moment, and we will never see it again the same way. What is happening now we will only be aware of at some future time. What happens in the future has yet to be determined. We are always moving through time, into the future, even if we seem to stand still.

Our ordering of events is not perfect, we do not fully understand the nature of time. It seems like there is never no time, but there are places where things happen so fast that time seems to stutter. It is also difficult to separate the notion of time from that of distance, particularly as you go very fast, or you think of things that are very big—like the Sun.

Elementary Mathematical Methods - Session 1

Those people who want to register for the course, send me an email at george@madscitech.org. You may connect up with us tonight at 8 PM Central Time on Skype. Use my Skype name georgehrab. If you are not registered for the course, I will not respond.

The Conduct of the Elementary Mathematical Methods Course

The conduct of the course will be like this:
1) Written material will be added each week.
2) Every Saturday at 8PM Central Time there will be a live session via Skype and TeamViewer. This session is very important. Do not ignore this. If you need to get a microphone for your computer, do so. Download Skype, it's free! So is TeamViewer 8.
3) Throughout the week discussions will be held at The Mind of a Theorist - The Blog. These are also important. I can only gauge how you are doing by examining your "homework". The discussions will be where you express issues you are having. It also gives those who understand the material a chance to test out their understanding by explaining things to others.
I have several people who emailed me that they are signing up for the course. Anyone else who is interested, you have until this next Friday to sign up and read what I have put up already. You can sign up by sending email to george@madscitech.org.

The Elementary Mathematical Methods Course is On

OK, there are now enough people interested to do this. I will need people to email me for signing up for the course. Use my email address george@madscitech.org.

Elementary Mathematical Methods

If I can get a total of 10 people interested I will teach a course on Elementary Mathematical Methods for Science. This will consist of units on algebra, estimation and dimensions, geometry, trigonometry, analytic geometry, calculus, linear algebra, multivariable calculus, differential equations, and probability and statistics. Possibly other topics as well.

I have 4 people interested already.

Here is how the course will be conducted:

1) Each Friday I will place material on a web site for the course. This will be in the form of a cdf file, a format created by Wolfram Research. Many of these documents will contain interactive material for you to play with. There will be a number of challenges: 2-3 will be done in complete detail, 1-2 will be done in less detail, 1-2 will be done in little detail, and 1-2 will have no detail.

2) Discussions of the work will continue on the blog until the students are done with them. If this takes 2 months, then I know that I have done something wrong.

3) Throughout the week I will monitor the blog to see what responses I get. This will determine the new material I put up on Friday of that week. I will also put up a record of the discussion formatted for the mathematics

4) Upon completion of an assignment by all participants I will post a transcription of the discussion formatted in Mathematica and converted into a cdf.

5) If people are interested, I will have a live session on Saturday evenings beginning at 8PM central time and going until 10 PM central time. This will be via Skype and will use TeamViewer as the desktop sharing software so that I can answer questions directly.

6) If I can figure out a way to do it efficiently I will produce audio lectures keyed to the material, so you can follow along.

The Book is Out!!!

Well, the book I wrote with Leonard Susskind, The Theoretical Minimum, is out and is a huge success! Thanks to all of you who have been following this! You can find the web site to support the book at www.madscitech.org/tm.

New Information Theory Post and Mathematica 9

Mathematica 9 has come out and has some amazing new capabilities. I have produced a new information theory post using some of the new functions. This is at http://www.madscitech.org/information/information.html

For Those Wanting to Study on Their Own

I have a book on Lulu called "Self-Instruction and Teaching: Science Education for the New Millenium". This is all about how to learn effectively, and how to teach others. You can find it here: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/george1053

Starting a new Writing Project

I will be working on a textbook for University Physics, called University Physics with Modern Physics. I know, terribly original title. This book will be freely available as a series of downloads from the web site www.madscitech.org/upmp starting today. I envison this as a bunch of Mathematica-based cdfs (computational documents) and pdfs. I will also be able to put together custom textbooks to suit the needs of specific classes. These will be available at Lulu (www.lulu.com), and through the web site above. At this stage I am working on the structure of the contents. In general, here are the contents:

1. Introduction to Physics
2. Mathematics
3. Mathematical Physics
4. Theoretical Physics
5. Computational Physics
6. Experimental Physics
7. Classical Physics
8. Modern Physics
9. Using Calculus to Model Motion
10. Introduction to Mathematica
11. Error Analysis
12. Newtonian Mechanics
13. Thermodynamics and Energy
14. Fields and Waves
15. Problems with Classical Physics
16. Einstein's Relativity
17. Quantum Physics
18. Applications of Relativity and Quantum Physics
19. Differential Equations

There is a LOT more, but this will be enough for now. :-)

The Web Page for The Theoretical Minimum is Up!

The web page for The Theoretical Minimum is up and you can see it at: www.madscitech.org/tm.

New Writing on Information Theory: Some important theorems on Markov Chains, their proofs, and how to model Markov Chains in Mathematica. http://www.madscitech.org/information/information.html

New Information Theory Site on MAST

I have formalized my notes on information theory and placed them on the MAST website. You can find tham at http://www.madscitech.org/information/information.html

More Information on the Book

I just finished working over the proofs for the publsher. It is now in their hands again. The next step is the Galleys, and then back to the publisher again. The book is scheduled to be out in January 2012.

Been Away Again

I have been away for a couple of months. In that time my co-author on the book, Leonard Susskind, and I have been working on the final draft of our book THEORETICAL MINIMUM: Claswsical Mechanics and hope to have it done in a few weeks.

MAST is working on developing education modules for basic science.

I have had a paper on numerical modeling of the diffusion equation accepted for publication in The Mathematica Journal.

I will be working on the show The Wonders of Physics this year.

I will be doing more in the coming days.

Wonders of Physics

I am busy, this week, with the Wonders of Physics (click here to go to the web site). This is a public demonstration show. Go to the web site and check it out!