Recommendations for a maths refresher book

flop

Hi all,

I am doing a degree in Computer science and Statistics with OU, one of the modules i am currently studying is more of a classic maths course than statistics. As i haven't studied maths since i was in college over 20 years ago, i am in need of a refresher of some of the basics. Some of the areas which come to mind would be

Algebra (quadratic equations, simultaneous equations etc)
Manipulation of brackets
Transformations
Differentiation
Integration
Complex Numbers

I am thinking i should start with a junior cert higher level text book. If this is the right level what would folks recommend?

I know i'll need a higher leaving cert book for the Differentiation/Integration later in the course

Cheers
Flop

MoogPoo

id say its probably leaving cert moreso. they dont do differentiation, integration or complex numbers for JC. dont know what they use now but i used Discovering Maths 4 three years ago. Just go into a school book shop and ask for the higher level maths book. Theres probably a standard one.

Fremen

khanacademy.org should be enough unless you want a physical textbook.

flop

So i guess i am looking for text books which would show how to work with exponents and bracket manipulation

lets say i have a problem

(1) 3^n-1* 4^n+1+4^n-1 * 3^n+1 - 2(3^n * 4^n)

Which when simplified gives

(2) 3^n-1 4^n-1(4^2+3^2-2*3 * 4)

(3) 12^n-1

So i can understand how i get from (2) to (3) but i am at a loss as to figure out how we simplify from (1) to (2). What cancellation/manipulation rules are used?

I was looking through Algebra for dummies last night and it doesn't seem to cover an example like the one listed above

Flop

sponsoredwalk

I highly recommend the book Principles of Mathematics which you can read
about here. This book is from the 1960's reforms and is the most rigorous
and hardcore textbook I've ever seen at this level - it will give you the
mathematical strength to read the hardest calculus (dare I even say analysis)
book with ease. It starts from the fundamentals and assumes nothing other
than a capability to follow the reasoning. Furthermore it has logic and
boolean algebra chapters which would be very useful for computer science.
The third edition definitely has solutions at the back, I don't know about
earlier versions & I actually don't think they do so be careful about that
but you should be able to get a cheap copy online.

It's not an easy book, but from painful experience I have found that this
book contains everything you need to develop the capability to read
higher mathematics without confusion, fear & pain - basically It will teach
you the right way to think about things.

However, I doubt you will choose that book unfortunately so I recommend
to you to use the algebra notes here along with the videos here * and the
algebra video course here. This would give a good foundation, especially
if you used these resources in tandem with this book which I have seen
in Chapters in town (Dublin) recently.

The videos in the * link are the best place to start I think, working through
them from the beginning is highly recommended.

Ideally you would use all resources but I'm sure time is a factor, the *
videos and the algebra notes would be great to get quick easy access to
the material & you could come back to use the longer videos with either
of the two books I've mentioned afterwards to clean up the loose ends.

flop

Hi, sponsoredwalk

Thanks for the recommendations, i ordered the principles of Mathematics just to prove you wrong ;-) from reading the blog it seems like the best place to start relearning all the maths i used to know. Thats the killer i used to know all this stuff 20 years ago.

I'm also getting mentored from a colleague who has a Phd in Maths, so i should be sorted.

Regards
Flop

sponsoredwalk

Haha good ol' reverse psychology

I must clarify, I have the second edition and it has solutions & he says in the
preface that solutions have been added to this edition so anything after
the first (1955) edition is good.

If you have any problems with the book just leave a message on this
forum or in this thread but I'm sure it'll all quickly come back to you!

bnt

Another option is to go for an Engineering Mathematics book - such as Stroud's Engineering Mathematics. I see he also has a Foundation Mathematics book which I'm not familiar with, though its contents might be suited to your needs too.

PaulieBoy

Second the Khan academy if your happy with online stuff. If you want a book/s from your list of topics and the level your looking at then you can't beat Text and Tests 4 and 5. Work well as stand alone books, I used them to 'warm' up before college, and had no problem following them. Best thing about these books is the extensive questions at the end of each section and even better answers to all are given!
Available any place that sells school books.

Agent_99

PaulieBoy wrote: »

Second the Khan academy if your happy with online stuff. If you want a book/s from your list of topics and the level your looking at then you can't beat Text and Tests 4 and 5. Work well as stand alone books, I used them to 'warm' up before college, and had no problem following them. Best thing about these books is the extensive questions at the end of each section and even better answers to all are given!
Available any place that sells school books.

+1 on the text and test books I use it to brush up on the basic algebra
PatrickJMT on youtube is very good as well for differentiation and integration.

annamosullivan

Like some of you, I did modules on maths and statistics approx 20 years ago in college, but have forgotten it all. Am hoping to do a data analytics course at some stage, but have completely forgotten all my maths and statistics. Can anyone recommend good books/websites to brush up maths and statistics? Thanks in advance

flop

first off it's interesting to see this thread resurrected after such a long time.

there are plenty of good maths and stats courses available on courses and udemy.

for basic stats brush up on measure of location calculation(mean sd variance), data modelling using normal binomial and Poisson distributions.

additionally understanding how to computer a correlation using a 2 X 2 may be useful too as would the basic concept of regression.

if you gravitate to machine learning having a good background in differential calculus will make life easier.

what ever you decide, enjoy the learning experience
Flop