But I don’t know if it’s appropriate to ask them on SDMB. It’s not a homework. It’s just self-study. But people may think they are homework and therefore feel unwilling to solve them. How can I convince people that they are not homework?
There’s no problem with asking them. As for convincing people to answer in good faith… Well, for that you’re on your own.
At least, when the topic is math, you can verify for yourself whether the answers are correct or jokes.
For me, just putting in the OP “these are book/simple/sample questions but I’m not taking a class so it’s not homework” has always worked just fine.
Yup, don’t sweat it - just post them in GQ. You’ll get great answers, crap answers, snark, and most everything in-between.
Bribery is helpful.
Just wondering: I saw one time that someone said how the SDMB doesn’t have a problem with homework questions as long as they are not asking to do the work for them. In another words, you can ask if all you are looking for is a little help to get pointed in the right direction. Is this correct?
I’ve posted homework-like questions in GQ without problems. Of course it helps to have been here awhile. But just explain your situation and I think you’ll be fine.
It’s usually okay if you frame it as “how do I go about solving this problem” rather than “what is the answer to this problem.”
If the OP just wants us to give the answer, then there’s nothing to discuss and it isn’t a suitable topic for SDMB to begin with. The answer is always 42.
Slight hijack - what are some good online resources for mathematical questions? I’m thinking:
- reference
- tutorials
- forums
- applications
For example, I like to tinker with different ideas, sometimes just out of curiosity, sometimes as a way of conceptualizing unrelated things, sometimes to solve a problem, and sometimes to make something more realistic when writing fiction. All of these things can wander into the realm of math. But I don’t want to have to go linearly through a series of math textbooks to finally get to what I need. I’d like to be able to, say, be able to consult a good index to find which area of math relates to what I’m trying to do, identify which formula(s)/algorithms are relevant, and then have some similar examples to modify in an application so I can plot things and play with the parameters.
I’d like some general broad resources of the four types mentioned, but at this time I’m also particularly interested in playing with waveforms. I’m comfortable with trig and basic calculus, but from what I can gather based on my limited experience, something like Fourier transforms might be the direction I need to head in. But I’m having trouble finding practical resources about that. I’m also tangentially interested in conversion of waveforms, for example, turning a trigonometric waveform into an audio file or light projection.
“Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater.”
-Albert Einstein