Math Question

Not to brag but I was and 8th grader in Calc 3.

Aren't you the guy who said angle C was 12, 24, and 3 degrees?

I have no clue why i typed 3, it was supposed to be 8. But yeah, 12 was eyeballing, 24 was being lazy, and 8 was actually doing it.

Lolwut?
I laugh at people who take more advanced math than me and only get 500 on SAT math and have trouble with simple calculations. They think they are math geniuses, but they don't have common sense. I never skipped ahead in any of my math course (algebra 1 in 8th grade; I actually learned all of that by myself in 6th grade, but after that, I stopped reading ahead for math. I might do it again this summer for Calc BC if I have the time.); however, I do very well in math contests with simple and clever problems. Intuitive problems are so much better than learning formulas and theorems that you don't actually understand. I can proof every formula I know.
I suppose this also correlates to one's cubing style. I like simple elegant math contest problems, and I try to come up with such FMC solutions intuitively. Others may like very advanced topics that they don't fully understand and prefer memorizing large amounts of algorithms.
I never took Precalc, I went from Algebra 1 to geometry to algebra 2 + trigonometry + statistics to calculus AB.
 
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@voldemort. How am i making him sound smarter?

I never mentioned that was a bad thing... I think I need to be more clear about these things. You seem to think I hate you or something :confused:

oh I am a bit jealous about you Americans being able to take these and that courses and so on. But I am also not sure if that system is that good either :/

Well, American schools on average are apparently well behind European schools, so much that if a foreign exchange student comes here for a year, they have to take the year again once they go back. For German and French students at least, so I was assuming most of Europe.

If you have 4 objects and 3 boxes, furthermore, and the distribution is 3 1 and 0 objects per box, for the 'easy' problem the expected value would again be 2.5, and for the hard problem it would be 1/2 (3) + 1/2 (1) = 2. You can see that both of these are higher than 4/3. Note that the problem is asking for the expected value over all possible circumstances, though, so this isn't the answer (although it might help).

What about this? I actually found this before I read your post. If there's k/n "base" expected value, and you know there must be an item in the box, that adds 1/n, right? So (k+1)/n?

@fanwuq - How old are you?
Your school just let you skip Precalculus?

One more thing for anyone that's done with school/college - do you ever actually use Calculus in a job? We grow up and the math teachers make up random excuses as to why certain math is necessary, and yet a lot of it doesn't make sense. What, for example, is the practical purpose of finding the non real roots of the cube root of two? Is the useful stuff in calculus?
 
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@fanwuq - How old are you?
Your school just let you skip Precalculus?

I never took Precalc, I went from Algebra 1 to geometry to algebra 2 + trigonometry + statistics to calculus AB.

17. Just finished 11th grade.
8th grade: algebra 1
9th grade: geometry
10th grade: algebra 2 + trigonometry + statistics
11th grade: calculus AB

I've basically relaxed through all of my math classes until last year. Trig and calculus AB are the only math classes that I actually had to learn from the teacher. On everything else, I got over 85% on the diagnostic test before I started the course. I guess I never bother to get out of them because there was always something contained in the course that I didn't know.


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Voldemort: I'm not going to be a math or physics major, so I would not use calculus after college. For engineering, you might be able to use some of it, but for most people, calculus is practically useless after you leave school.
 
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I am trapped in Algerbra 1 until next year, but I can do arithmetic and many calculations like mad. I made the only 100% on my Standards-Of-Learning(SOL) exams without a calculator.(Have been the only 100 several other times... getting a 99.4% and needed a challenge.)
 
well i knew 2 months before my 16th birthday :)

Dude you're in India. Everyone from this part of the world knows this sort of stuff.
as I said, I also knew it when I was 15, but as I said - extracurricular...

@qqref: of course that's possible. but looking this up is quite of a cheap way to do it. still legitimate, of course ;)
 
well i knew 2 months before my 16th birthday :)

Dude you're in India. Everyone from this part of the world knows this sort of stuff.
as I said, I also knew it when I was 15, but as I said - extracurricular...

@qqref: of course that's possible. but looking this up is quite of a cheap way to do it. still legitimate, of course ;)

This isn't topic related. But Simon did you know you are my favourite cuber? :) And I requested more walkthrough or slow motion solves from you :) Anytime soon?
 
well i knew 2 months before my 16th birthday :)

Dude you're in India. Everyone from this part of the world knows this sort of stuff.
as I said, I also knew it when I was 15, but as I said - extracurricular...

@qqref: of course that's possible. but looking this up is quite of a cheap way to do it. still legitimate, of course ;)

This isn't topic related. But Simon did you know you are my favourite cuber? :) And I requested more walkthrough or slow motion solves from you :) Anytime soon?

who the hell is Simon? :(
 
well i knew 2 months before my 16th birthday :)

Dude you're in India. Everyone from this part of the world knows this sort of stuff.
as I said, I also knew it when I was 15, but as I said - extracurricular...

@qqref: of course that's possible. but looking this up is quite of a cheap way to do it. still legitimate, of course ;)

This isn't topic related. But Simon did you know you are my favourite cuber? :) And I requested more walkthrough or slow motion solves from you :) Anytime soon?

who the hell is Simon? :(
holy ****! cant believe i made that mistake :) sorry the Sin H somehow led me in the wrong way. I meant Stefan ofcourse. I'm really sorry :) some fan eh? :P
 
I am trapped in Algerbra 1 until next year, but I can do arithmetic and many calculations like mad. I made the only 100% on my Standards-Of-Learning(SOL) exams without a calculator.(Have been the only 100 several other times... getting a 99.4% and needed a challenge.)

Nice job. I am also stuck in algebra 1... pretty depressing.

anyway, I did some research last night, and I now have a vague understanding of the problem that Gparker posted. It's not quite as complicated as I thought it would be, but I still remain adamant that expecting an 8th grader to solve it is absurd.

Here's what I found out. A power series is a form of infinite series in X. For any value of X, the series can converge to a limit or diverge (the value of the limit is infinite or undefined). So for that particular series, the X values converge to a limit for an interval, and the problem is asking you to find it. This requires the use of relatively advanced calculus that I have a very vague understanding of.
 
well i knew 2 months before my 16th birthday :)

Dude you're in India. Everyone from this part of the world knows this sort of stuff.
as I said, I also knew it when I was 15, but as I said - extracurricular...

@qqref: of course that's possible. but looking this up is quite of a cheap way to do it. still legitimate, of course ;)

This isn't topic related. But Simon did you know you are my favourite cuber? :) And I requested more walkthrough or slow motion solves from you :) Anytime soon?

who the hell is Simon? :(
holy ****! cant believe i made that mistake :) sorry the Sin H somehow led me in the wrong way. I meant Stefan ofcourse. I'm really sorry :) some fan eh? :P
:P I kinda knew that. but I just had to ask that question ;) some more walkthroughs are definitely on my list of to-do-videos. but I don't cube much these days... I hope I can do some more ;) and thanks, of course =)
 
I am trapped in Algerbra 1 until next year, but I can do arithmetic and many calculations like mad. I made the only 100% on my Standards-Of-Learning(SOL) exams without a calculator.(Have been the only 100 several other times... getting a 99.4% and needed a challenge.)

Nice job. I am also stuck in algebra 1... pretty depressing.

anyway, I did some research last night, and I now have a vague understanding of the problem that Gparker posted. It's not quite as complicated as I thought it would be, but I still remain adamant that expecting an 8th grader to solve it is absurd.

Here's what I found out. A power series is a form of infinite series in X. For any value of X, the series can converge to a limit or diverge (the value of the limit is infinite or undefined). So for that particular series, the X values converge to a limit for an interval, and the problem is asking you to find it. This requires the use of relatively advanced calculus that I have a very vague understanding of.

Since when were power series advanced calculus? They're not much different from Taylor series since most are derived from taylor series: i.e. sin x, cos x, e^x, ln(x), arctan(x)

@ThatGuy
This is all covered in BC Calculus, which is definitely not Calculus 3.

I also find that school math is a bad representation on how good one is in math. Everyone can get an A if they try in school. In Contest math, not everyone can succeed.
 
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Since when were power series advanced calculus? They're not much different from Taylor series since most are derived from taylor series: i.e. sin x, cos x, e^x, ln(x), arctan(x)

@ThatGuy
This is all covered in BC Calculus, which is definitely not Calculus 3.

I also find that school math is a bad representation on how good one is in math. Everyone can get an A if they try in school. In Contest math, not everyone can succeed.

(I think my quoting failed. IT WORKED!)
BC only goes up the infinite series, but three includes polar stuff (ARGGGG I HATE IT) But yeah, everyone can get an A in school. I completely agree with you in contest math, which is why I started this year, which is also why I stopped pursuing Calc stuff and started Number Theory (sentence fail).
 
BC only goes up the infinite series, but three includes polar stuff (ARGGGG I HATE IT) But yeah, everyone can get an A in school. I completely agree with you in contest math, which is why I started this year, which is also why I stopped pursuing Calc stuff and started Number Theory (sentence fail).

BC definitely covers 'polar stuff', and even touches on some multivariable subjects. I personally found these topics a bit less dry, and enjoyed them more. And unfortunately I was pretty bored when I took a class that covered some number theory... hopefully you find it interesting, though.

And LOL @ LOLCODE :)
 
BC only goes up the infinite series, but three includes polar stuff (ARGGGG I HATE IT) But yeah, everyone can get an A in school. I completely agree with you in contest math, which is why I started this year, which is also why I stopped pursuing Calc stuff and started Number Theory (sentence fail).

BC definitely covers 'polar stuff', and even touches on some multivariable subjects. I personally found these topics a bit less dry, and enjoyed them more. And unfortunately I was pretty bored when I took a class that covered some number theory... hopefully you find it interesting, though.

And LOL @ LOLCODE :)

Alright, I guess I wouldn't really know as I haven't taken that class. I just assumed BC would not go up to series as I personally find them more difficult and confusing than other aspects of calculus.
 
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