Math suggestions

[Alex K]

Remember to use all your fingers and toes. Need more, sit next to a cutie with a pension for one toed shoes! (hehe)

Brewer, the year is 2 days old and you are drunk again already???
Or is this a list minute ploy to win weirdest member. Yeah thought so.

Also, a pension for shoes? No autocorrect is that lame

[brewer]

Remember to use all your fingers and toes. Need more, sit next to a cutie with a pension for one toed shoes! (hehe)

Brewer, the year is 2 days old and you are drunk again already???
Or is this a list minute ploy to win weirdest member. Yeah thought so.

Also, a pension for shoes? No autocorrect is that lame

Me no spellify soo good.

One toed should be open toed. Pension should be penchant.

Drunk, no. Altered, yes.

[robvalue]

Maths is awesome! Maths!

I've always loved it, even from an early age. I actually asked for maths homework before we got to the stage of being given it.

[Heat]

Problem is that I have only spent my senior year in the US and don't know exactly what all the courses are called there.Americans with science degrees can give you more specific info there.

Basic algebra is a given if course, how to use fractions and all that. The most important things you need in order to study physics and astronomy (which I assume you still intend to) are then linear algebra and calculus, and in particular trigonometry, which kind of becomes a part of calculus. Those are the things you need on a daily basis. In particular

Calculus
-how to simplify expressions
- how limits and derivatives work
- how series and sequences work
- how integration works in principle
- integrals and derivatives of standard functions such as polynomials and trig functions
-tricks for simplifying integrals

in LinA
- how vector spaces work in principle
- representation of vectors in a basis
-scalar products and projections
- multiplication of matrices and vectors and how to use them to write down systems of linear equations and quadratic equations
- determinants and systems of linear equations
- Matrix inversion, diagonalization, eigenvectors  and eigenvalues

Other:
Look at the basic trigonometric functions (sin, cos, tan) and their relations to triangles. Do that before you do anything else, or you will be very confused by many things above

Then you are off to a good start and good till a coupla semesters in.

Later you will need ordinary and partial differential equations and calculus of complex variables and functionals, but that is something you can keep in mind but you do not have to worry about in the beginning. Learning how to use complex numbers in basic operations is simple and fun though, so you should just do it on the side.

I took AP level calculus in 12th grade (derivatives, limits, integrals and volume integrals) and that was pretty spot on what I needed later. You do not need worry about too much abstract algebra in the beginning.

So my suggestion is look at introductory college level linear algebra and calculus books, and check whether you think you can understand it and work the problems. If there is too much stuff that you do not get, try to find out where the deficits are. You can ask me, too.

Use a good book. By all means, use websites and youtube tutorials and wikipedia too, but not as your primary guide I would say.

Thank you for that reply. I really appreciate that you took the time out of your day to give me an exceptional response, as you did in your post.

I will definitely be thinking about some things, and referring back to this post.

And yes, I am still planning on being an astronomer, although i'm not quite sure what that means. I just know I don't want to waste my life. So if being an Astronomer means I get the chance to make discoveries, theories, and be on the verge of breakthrough's for the field, then yes, I would love to have that job. Space is my passion, but not a job in the field is not a necessity. I really just want to leave my mark, some how, I would love to discover something in the field of Astronomy, but I don't care whether or not it's astronomy so long as I make an impact on the world that has meaning in my absent foreseeable future.

Generally:

Algebra
Geometry
Trigonometry/Precalculus
Calculus
Linear Algebra (aka College Algebra)
Calc II
Statistics
Calc III
Differential Equations

Those will get you through a BS in an Engineering principle. (Calc II/III/DiffEqs will be integral is Statics/Dynamics and physics/chemistry)

For learning on your own, I can't stress how awesome Khan Academy is. From Elementary school through college math, everything you need to learn is right there. It was amazing for me to teach myself Calc II/III again after 10 years for a Calculus based Statistics class. Well thought out problems, all leading toward conceptual understanding.

Very useful.

Thank you for the helpful post, I really appreciate you laying out the categories and giving me advice. I feel I should respond, and thank everyone for the help, because I will be using yours and everyone else's posts as reference.

A large part of math is training your brain how to think properly.  There is no substitute for doing the work.

I never did the work because I was bright enough to pass the tests without doing the work.  I would just absorb the concepts and improvise the supporting bridges.

For example, I never worked through the trigonometric identities.  So even in Differential Equations, if I needed a bit of trigonometry, I would invent it on the hoof from sin^2 x + cos^2 x = 1.   This basically doomed my later math career.

I suggest you do the work.

Thanks for the post.

I'm not planning on not doing the work, sorry if it came off as that. In fact, it's ironically the opposite, i'm trying to get ahead by doing more work. I just want to make sure that in effort to get ahead, any work I do is not a time waste, that it all serves a purpose and is for a specific reason. I'm not looking to cut corners, I just want to be efficient. I want to know what work I should do, what I should learn, that will have a direct impact down the road, and will be useful. 

Doing the work is good, as long as it serves a purpose, and that purpose, i'm trying to identify before starting, to avoid it becoming meaningless.

[Joods]

Strictly speaking for myself here. I wake up every day and have yet to come across a day where I've needed algebra once. I'm horrible at math. Once letters figure into it, that's it for me. All bets are off and I walk away.

Not a whole lot of math is involved in what I'm in school for. At least not yet, that I've seen.

[SteelCurtain]

And yes, I am still planning on being an astronomer, although i'm not quite sure what that means. I just know I don't want to waste my life. So if being an Astronomer means I get the chance to make discoveries, theories, and be on the verge of breakthrough's for the field, then yes, I would love to have that job. Space is my passion, but not a job in the field is not a necessity. I really just want to leave my mark, some how, I would love to discover something in the field of Astronomy, but I don't care whether or not it's astronomy so long as I make an impact on the world that has meaning in my absent foreseeable future.

Although I am not currently in the field, my degree is in Aeronautical Engineering, and rocket science is a pretty critical offshoot of astronomy. I am always fascinated by Astro shit in general, and TBH if I could do it all over I would have gone to USC or pursued MIT and tried my ass off to work for NASA in some capacity.

I would recommend listening to one of this episode of the Podcast Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project. It has David L. Miller on it, NASA's CTO (Chief Technology Officer) and he answers a lot of questions about what you should be studying in order to be a part of the badass things NASA (or the private companies they are helping to succeed) are doing in the next 30 years. I love Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame) and that podcast, they actually do that episode on The Rock at Alcatraz.

Edit:

Here's the video:
https://youtu.be/SqndNdkYKtg

[Alex K]

The suggestions we gave above are, I believe, pretty universally valid for math based science and engineering, and not at all specific to astronomy, so you can't really go wrong.

[Alex K]

Strictly speaking for myself here. I wake up every day and have yet to come across a day where I've needed algebra once. I'm horrible at math. Once letters figure into it, that's it for me. All bets are off and I walk away.

Not a whole lot of math is involved in what I'm in school for. At least not yet, that I've seen.

That is entirely plausible. Yet, after you wake up it probably dosn't take minutes before you use technology that would be impossible without advanced calculus and the like...

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Maths is awesome! Maths!

I've always loved it, even from an early age. I actually asked for maths homework before we got to the stage of being given it.

This is you Rob D:

[Joods]

Strictly speaking for myself here. I wake up every day and have yet to come across a day where I've needed algebra once. I'm horrible at math. Once letters figure into it, that's it for me. All bets are off and I walk away.

Not a whole lot of math is involved in what I'm in school for. At least not yet, that I've seen.

That is entirely plausible. Yet, after you wake up it probably dosn't take minutes before you use technology that would be impossible without advanced calculus and the like...

Oh I believe you. But considering it was part of the requirements of the employees who manufactured those things I do use, they did their job of utilizing mathematical things so that I wouldn't have to.