sky-at-knight.blogspot.com
It's Full Of Stars: September 2010
http://sky-at-knight.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html
It's Full Of Stars. Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe". Friday, 24 September 2010. Incidently, since you ask, I did manage to get the rabbit safely into her hutch for the night. White rabbits, apart from being famous for disappearing down holes, are quite easy to see under a full moon! Tuesday, 21 September 2010.
catbear.wordpress.com
Linear equations and matrices | TMA Machine
https://catbear.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/linear-equations-and-matrices
The adventures of a mathematics-loving Open University student. Linear equations and matrices. Filed under: M208: Pure mathematics. February 1, 2010. Now this is more like it! I’m not sure why it never occurred to me before, but during LA2 I found myself suddenly wondering who had invented matrix methods for solving simultaneous equations, and I was really surprised to find that the technique has been known for around 2000 years. That’s pretty mindblowing, I think. Laquo; Vectors and conics. A BSc for me!
catbear.wordpress.com
Homomorphisms, group actions, and maths fatigue | TMA Machine
https://catbear.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/homomorphisms-group-actions-and-maths-fatigue
The adventures of a mathematics-loving Open University student. Homomorphisms, group actions, and maths fatigue. Filed under: M208: Pure mathematics. Mdash; 4 Comments. July 25, 2010. So it turns out that GTB2 (Homomorphisms) is quite a tough one as well! Seems to really trip me up. And even worse, the associated TMA question was full of that stuff! Hopefully there won’t be as many. Related questions on the exam…. Weirdly, I’ll be really quite glad when M208 is finished, which is something I absolu...
catbear.wordpress.com
Vectors and conics | TMA Machine
https://catbear.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/vectors-and-conics
The adventures of a mathematics-loving Open University student. Filed under: M208: Pure mathematics. Mdash; 1 Comment. January 23, 2010. I found it quite hard to get back into working with conics, even though they were covered in almost as much detail in MS221 last year; in fact, oddly enough, I had less trouble getting used to vectors again, and the last time I studied those was in 2007! I also made a complete mess of all the “draw the intersection of these two planes in. Question in the exam….
catbear.wordpress.com
Continuity | TMA Machine
https://catbear.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/continuity
The adventures of a mathematics-loving Open University student. Filed under: M208: Pure mathematics. Mdash; 3 Comments. May 24, 2010. The similar examples involving balancing a table on bumpy ground, and equally distributing sugar on pancakes, were lots of fun too.). TMA04 is wrapped up now, and I’m proud to say that this will be my first ever LaTex-produced assignment! Well, I should say Lyx. May 9, 2012 at 8:50 pm. May 9, 2012 at 9:55 pm. May 9, 2012 at 10:47 pm. Thanks, I’ll look there. A BSc for me!
catbear.wordpress.com
Numbers | TMA Machine
https://catbear.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/numbers
The adventures of a mathematics-loving Open University student. Filed under: M208: Pure mathematics. April 15, 2010. I finally finished the TMA question associated with Unit AA1: Numbers today, and it’s quite a relief! I feel like I’ve been working on AA1 for absolutely ages. It’s not a bad unit, by any means, but for some reason my motivation levels have been a lot lower than usual lately, so I’ve barely been putting any time into M208 for the last few weeks. M257: Putting Java to work. A BSc for me!
catbear.wordpress.com
Sequences & Series | TMA Machine
https://catbear.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/sequences-series
The adventures of a mathematics-loving Open University student. Filed under: M208: Pure mathematics. May 11, 2010. I found myself a bit underwhelmed by Unit AA2, to be honest. It was interesting, and I really enjoyed the part of the associated DVD program about approximating pi by taking exterior and interior polygons around a circle, but overall the unit didn’t quite grab me in the same way as the chapter in MS221 about sequences. 8221; like that. Homomorphisms, group actions, and maths fatigue.
catbear.wordpress.com
Conjugacy | TMA Machine
https://catbear.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/conjugacy
The adventures of a mathematics-loving Open University student. Filed under: M208: Pure mathematics. June 24, 2010. Wow, GTB1 Conjugacy was a lot more gruelling than I expected! At some point in the future, so this unit can’t have been that bad! I hope I can manage a more careful reading of the exam questions than I seem to do for TMA questions! So now I’m making a start on GTB2 Homomorphisms, which seems a bit more straightforward than GTB1 – at least so far! Who knows what lurks in the later sections.
catbear.wordpress.com
Eigenvectors | TMA Machine
https://catbear.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/eigenvectors
The adventures of a mathematics-loving Open University student. Filed under: M208: Pure mathematics. Mdash; 1 Comment. March 28, 2010. I finally finished the Linear Algebra block this week, which I’m very happy about. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I feel like I’ve been working through it for years, not months! 8221; or whatever it turns out to be. (I promise I won’t actually shout this in the exam.). Hyperbolic paraboloids by fish2000. Pringles: a legitimate part of any linear algebra study session.
