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Status: Mathematics (2008-June)
(Text as at 18/07/2008 21:25:55)
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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 June 2008
No progress at all this month. I didn’t have time to pursue "Shankar (Ramamurti) - Fundamentals of Physics" or "Wolfson (Richard) & Pasachoff (Jay M.) - Physics with Modern Physics", as I need to take the mathematics seriously for the course to be worth following.
I did sign up for a Birkbeck summer reading group on Godel’s incompleteness theorems, but whether this will come to anything I know not.
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 elementary mathematics 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.
- Listened to the Open Yale course "Bailyn (Charles) - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics".
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Status: Summary (2026 - June) |
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