Category: Updates

Today I read more of The Mathematical Tourist. I’ve acquired an ebook version, which I can read using text-to-speech software, my preferred reading method for text-heavy books such as this. (As I think most current readers know, I’m dyslexic.) It’s a big improvement on my attempts to read my hard copy in the ordinary way.

I’ve decided to take a three-day break from my regular study schedule and from updating the blog. There is a lot going on for me during the first half of the coming week. Expect me back on Thursday.

A busy week caught up with me today, and I ended up resting and sleeping for most of the day. I didn’t make another attempt on the first chapter of my calc book, but I did read some of The Mathematical Tourist, my light reading book.

Happy Pi Day, readers! Don’t forget also to celebrate International Pi Approximation Day, which falls on the 22nd of July. (That’s 22/7, according to the more common method of abbreviating dates.)

Today I started reading the first chapter of my calculus book, which provides a review of functions. I struggled badly to concentrate on today’s reading, for reasons I’m not sure of. Possibly it is just that I slept poorly last night. Better luck in the morning, I hope.

I’m feeling much better today. I studied for two hours and finished the trigonometry review exercises from the appendix of Stewart’s Single Variable Calculus. I still want to try a few of the applied problems in the OpenStax text Algebra and Trigonometry, though, so I haven’t quite finished with the topic. Once I do, I will be ready to move on to the main body of the calculus book. Very exciting. Yet I think I may pause after the first chapter (which contains more review) and focus on working through Analysis with an Introduction to Proof until I reach the point where it introduces limits, the first calculus concept in Single Variable Calculus. While I do that, I will keep developing my high school math skills by working on some of the competition problems provided on the Art of Problem Solving wiki.

(Expect another installment of Parabola-a-Go-Go tomorrow. I was working on it for tonight, but it was taking too long.)

Nothing in my brain is really working today. I read two chapters of The Joy of X, but focusing enough to follow them was very difficult. I’m definitely not up to posting more about parabolas at the moment. Sigh.

Today I finished my investigation of reflections in parabolas. I also made some of the diagrams I will need when writing up my results. Yet I was tired and listless all day and, when it came to actually composing a post, I hit a wall. I hope for better conditions tomorrow.

Today I felt almost normal again. I also felt terribly weary. I nearly didn’t do any math at all, but pushed myself to read a few chapters of The Joy of X after dinner. It would be a shame to have kept up with my daily study through all the physical and mental turbulence brought on by the change in my medication, only to falter when things started to smooth out again.

The Joy of X is all right. It deals shallowly with a wide range of topics, and I often find myself wishing for more substance. It is useful on days when I am not up to other types of review, however, and it has also pointed out some interesting avenues of inquiry.

Today I read more of The Joy of X. Things are disrupted right now because my medications are being changed, causing me a lot of withdrawal symptoms. It’s frustrating that my functioning is so dependent on the levels of these chemicals, but it isn’t news. After all, this whole project was made possible by my discovery of the CBD, on the heels of an improvement in my prescribed medication.

I’ve been feeling unwell since early afternoon, so I’m not going to post about the converse of Wednesday’s theorem today. I did manage a couple of hours’ study this morning. I’m getting near the end of the exercises from the review of conics.