Teaching myself Mathematics

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I've been thinking of teaching myself maths. I was good at it at the beginning of secondary school, but I have trouble co-operating when made to do something, so I slacked off a lot with it. However, I recently saw a page of childhood test scores from a psychologist and my mental arithmetic was indeed quite good.

It's been a long time, but does anyone think this is doable? I'm just talking about free-time stuff, which might eventually segue into computer programming too. A hobby, really. I just don't really know where to start.

I could get a Junior Cert (Irish education system - equivalent, I think, of GCSEs. Dunno about the US) Maths book, but just want to check that that's the best way to go about it. I figure this forum will have a lot of high achievers in Mathematics.


Stephen

I really am not sure. I'm studying English in college so I am far away from this discipline. I would be starting from something quite basic.

Are proofs things like 'If x + y = 25, and x = 20, then y='? I readily admit my ignorance on the matter.

I'd go for it.

I was in a similar situation with writing--I wasn't very good at until my last semester in high school, where I got an A in English to prove I could do it--then I did the bare minimum in college. I was exceptionally good in science (top student in a prep school) and very good in math, so part of it the difficulty of handling so many subjects as once--though I didn't know it back then--in the dark ages before kids were diagnosed properly. Once in the work world, I found I had plenty of time and opportunity to hone my writing skills. I'm quite now skilled in writing, math, and science.

Maths has a very different flavour depending on what level you want to study. "Proper" mathematics is simply long chains of argument, and not necessarily about numbers. So I'm not sure how much arithmetic skills would help.

I think that you should maybe read through a Set Theory textbook. That's probably a good topic to help you understand what proofy maths looks like, and it underlies all modern mathematics.

Taught myself some trig, not difficult. And proof means you prove something is right, usually in geometry, like for example prove pythagoras theorem: You can use the cosine rule.
c^2=a^2+b^2-2abcosx(sorry I can't type theta on iPad)

Thanks guys. I'm aware that any natural arithmetic ability will only take me so far. I think I'll go with the Set Theory text book for now. Appreciate the advice.

Hopefully this will be fun. My hobbies are becoming increasingly demanding...

Do they have the Open University in Ireland? I really recommend it, I studied a bunch of maths with them a while ago. If you can get financial support they can be totally free.

ruveyn: Yeah, I saw jamieevren1210's example of a proof there. I've obviously forgotten the terminology but I was able to do them fine if memory serves.

Fraac, that's a good idea. I'm currently doing an undergraduate degree, so it'd be too much to take on now, but maybe in the future it's something I could look into.

some people find trig, or geometry easier than algebra.