To Understand General Relativity
I wanted to understand General Relativity but did not know enough to even ask a meaningful question of where to start. After adventuring in Geometry and Set Theory I made time to meet with a mathematics advisor at the University of Michigan. He laid out a course of study that would provide a minimal tool set of mathematics, which will not necessarily guarantee an understanding of General Relativity. That, he said, will depend on my enthusiasm.
It is my hope that these pages will serve as a record of a journey which others might find as a path to understand General Relativity. Stay to the left; the passages to the right may or may not lead anywhere.
So from pre-calculus to General Relativity, - Jim Waurzyniak April 12, 2004
"You've been thinking again", her tone was one of measures reservation. She knew he was a thinker when they met and had to admit she indulged in thinking much more than the average person.
"Uh-huh", he admitted slowly. He knew he had a thinking problem and was powerless to control it.
She knew what was coming; they had been down this road before. He would try to explain his thinking punctuated with phrases like "bizarre thought" or "ill formed ideas" or "this question is not quite right". Then she would find herself thinking, sometimes explaining and sometimes questioning. The thinking could last for hours as it often had in the past. Eventually this bout of thinking would come to a resolution of sorts. A resolution fraught with new interests, new questions and a wetted curiosity which can only be quenched by thinking.
If you find yourself in situations such as this or notice the telltale signs of having many books, an often active Internet connection, using production software as if it were toys. You may be a problem thinker.
The Cartesian Plane - why it works
Lines
Functions
Circles and Parabolas
Trigonometry August 1, 2004
Something of Value
A Limited Overview of Calculus