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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 27, 2015 at 6:46 pm
(This post was last modified: March 27, 2015 at 6:46 pm by watchamadoodle.)
(March 27, 2015 at 6:30 pm)Irrational Wrote: If you're more of the visual learner type:
Khan Academy is one of the best resources online to learn Calculus. If that doesn't help, try PatrickJMT. Thanks  I - no kidding - can barely do arithmetic now. Sometimes I think about trying to relearn the basic math, so I don't feel so stupid. PatrickJMT looks good, because it starts from the very beginning-level material. I have watched a few videos by Khan Academy and they are good too.
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 27, 2015 at 7:02 pm
(March 27, 2015 at 4:00 pm)watchamadoodle Wrote: I was just wondering if the computers might have eliminated all that misery. It would be nice if the computers could graph the equations in three dimensions and do all the math for you. 
If I can use Excel to mathematically determine the best recordings for the money of Wagner's operas, I'm sure someone's been able to figure out a program to streamline complex mathematical equations.
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 27, 2015 at 7:25 pm
(This post was last modified: March 27, 2015 at 7:26 pm by watchamadoodle.)
(March 27, 2015 at 6:38 pm)Alex K Wrote: That book doesn't look like it was meant as a pedagogical intro for learning diff equations, and more like a reference... Yep, but I'm pretty sure that was the smelly old book I remember. Everybody would say "look it up in the CRC". It was a big reference book of solutions to weird differential equation. We had to fiddle with the equations by dropping insignificant terms and transforming various ways until it matched something in that smelly book. Sometimes it would take all day and many pieces of paper and erasers to solve one problem.  I remember in physics class the professor taught QM with "bra-kets" which seemed to require no math at all, but it was completely meaningless to me. I read today on wikipedia that the "bra-kets" are designed to conceal some lower-level math. I just wasn't able to keep up unfortunately. 
That's why I think computers with 3-D interactive graphs would be helpful for modern-day students.
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 27, 2015 at 7:40 pm
YES, computers can do the hard stuff.... most of it, anyway.
There's a company called Wolfram with a nice piece of software called Mathematica that does just that - solve symbolic equations, among a bunch of other stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematica
You just need to tell it to do what you want it to do.
There's a guy that claims kids shouldn't need to learn boring old calculus, they should just learn how to use the tool that does the calculus for them:
http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_...anguage=en
And here's the big man himself:
http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_wolfram...anguage=en
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 27, 2015 at 7:44 pm
What an interesting way to promote his tools.
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 27, 2015 at 8:33 pm
(March 27, 2015 at 7:40 pm)pocaracas Wrote: YES, computers can do the hard stuff.... most of it, anyway.
There's a company called Wolfram with a nice piece of software called Mathematica that does just that - solve symbolic equations, among a bunch of other stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematica
You just need to tell it to do what you want it to do.
There's a guy that claims kids shouldn't need to learn boring old calculus, they should just learn how to use the tool that does the calculus for them:
http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_...anguage=en
And here's the big man himself:
http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_wolfram...anguage=en Thanks, I'm only halfway through the presentation, but it sounds interesting. It seems like math should be about learning relationships between the graphical appearance of the question and the graphical appearance of the answer. IMO
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 27, 2015 at 8:35 pm
Ahh... DiffEQs. I had a little blue book that had Laplace Transforms in it. I so very remember that class, and then Systems Engineering class the next semester where I had to apply all the DiffEQ knowledge that I brain dumped.
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 27, 2015 at 11:34 pm
Answering the OP question:
Yes, they can.
But it is wise to check that their answers agree with what you think you told them to do.
It's really easy to screw up operations and be given an answer which looks good but is totally wrong.
Acting on the wrong answer can range from embarrassing to really expensive.
So how, exactly, does God know that She's NOT a brain in a vat? 
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 28, 2015 at 1:37 am
(This post was last modified: March 28, 2015 at 1:38 am by IATIA.)
(March 27, 2015 at 4:00 pm)watchamadoodle Wrote: It would be nice if the computers could graph the equations in three dimensions and do all the math for you. I assume you are a time traveler from the past?
TI calculators, amongst others, have been doing that for years. There is also an IOS app for calculus and graphing. And Macs have come with a graphing calculator out of the box for quite some time.
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RE: Do computers solve the equations yet?
March 28, 2015 at 5:14 am
(March 27, 2015 at 5:17 pm)dyresand Wrote: They can do anything but be sentient yet.. 
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