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Status: Mathematics (2008-May)
(Text as at 04/07/2008 14:45:36)
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Rationale for this Project
This is rather an eccentric activity, on which I expatiated briefly in the Distractions1 section of my Research Proposal2. It is probably an attempt to exorcise some ancient demon. My excuse was that it’s more useful, if less sociable, than playing chess or bridge, to which I might otherwise be tempted. However, I’ve subsequently been tempted back to bridge. This, together with work at HSBC and on my web-tools3 project means that any further psychological need for technical activities is obviated. Consequently, this project is mostly in abeyance.
Summary of Progress during May 2008
This project is on semi-permanent hold. All that’s happening is that I’m listening to various Yale lectures in odd moments. I’ve now completed "Bailyn (Charles) - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics" (of 24 lectures, I listened to 5 lectures in December 2007, 4 in January 2008, 2 in February, 1 in March and 3 in April and 9 in May). I need to listen to them again, and pay more attention to the mathematics.
I also listened to the first lecture of "Shankar (Ramamurti) - Fundamentals of Physics", and bought the course text - "Wolfson (Richard) & Pasachoff (Jay M.) - Physics with Modern Physics". This series will not be worth pursuing without the mathematics, as I already know most of the principles, and it’s really warming up my competence that would be worth doing.
Items Outstanding for Immediate Progression
- Complete the lecture series "Shankar (Ramamurti) - Fundamentals of Physics", in conjunction with the exercises and reading "Wolfson (Richard) & Pasachoff (Jay M.) - Physics with Modern Physics".
- Repeat "Bailyn (Charles) - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics", this time doing the exercises – without doing these, understanding is at best incomplete.
- Write a brief paper4 summarising the epistemological benefits of the somewhat elementary mathematics involved when applied to the raw observational data.
Summary of Progress to Date
- I have downloaded a variety of course-material from the websites of various London Colleges, together with stuff from the Oxford and Cambridge websites, focusing on those courses having exercises with worked examples. I’ve also dusted off my old notes, which seem to have been written by someone else.
- As a warm-up exercise, I started a first-year course on discrete mathematics from the LSE.
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Status: Summary (2026 - June) |
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