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Learning by Rote

Started by Xgkkp May 14, 2003 at 7:33 AM 4 replies 500+ views

Original Post

May 14, 2003 at 7:33 AM

I''m sitting in a ''maths'' class called ''Computational Mathematics'' at the moment (Part of Term 3 of my Physics Course). He''s going through matlab stuff, but it all looks like pushing numbers around for the sake of it, he''s also soing stuff that we havn''t covered in our course at all. I don''t know about other people, but I REALLY can''t learn computer stuff by just watching, and even when I do type the stuff into matlab I don''t know what the stuff is actually doing - so it doesn''t mean anything so it doesn''t stay with me. The only time I do learn things is in the ''Lab'' when we basically have step by step instruction sheets to tell us what to do with topics we don''t understand, and the people running the lab refuse to let us see our previous lab sheets marks - so we can not get any feedback. Does anyone else think this is a bad way of learning matlab? I mean, I''ve had more luck teaching myself maple and the basics of matlab (We have both here at uni) with the help files. (Personally, I prefer Maple, because it seems to be more useful).

vanillacoke

May 14, 2003 at 10:07 AM

That''s a terrible way to learn anything. Why don''t you get your grades back? It doesn''t make any sense.

dede

May 14, 2003 at 10:23 AM

IMHO, Learning by doing is prolly the only way to learn a software package. And using advanced features in a software package, without actually knowing exactly what they do, is ok. (Would I ever want to know the exact algorthm for doing a sin curve numberic integration? As long as I know kinda what its doing, its ok).

However, what you describe is crap. However, everyone in education gets to take a crap course, so welcome to the club. Bytch to whomever is responsible for assigning this ''professor'' to the class. Usually the department head.

If you get enough people who also feel the same way, then maybe the department head will correct this problem.

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vanillacoke

May 14, 2003 at 4:26 PM

Actually, I would love to know how the computer computes sine values. Of course, I have this problem where I can only use software if I know exactly what its doing, and if I can''t find information on it, I just write my own software.

dede

May 14, 2003 at 10:14 PM

quote:
Original post by vanillacoke
I have this problem where I can only use software if I know exactly what its doing, and if I can''t find information on it, I just write my own software.

, don''t worry, you''ll get over that phase in your life really quickly, OR else you''ll never be able to play PS2.

Its important to understand somewhat what its doing, but sadly, a lot of those companies are "hush-hush" on exactly how they are accomplishing it. You have to take the answer at face value, or do it yourself. For many problems, its just easier to take it at face value, and go on to bigger and better things.

Sine functions, take your pick Most games use a look up table and interpolate the values, rather than the actual sine/cos functions. Check the Graphic Gems for code to do it that way.(this is actually the way I was taught to do it in Middle School)

Timkin

149

Timkin

May 14, 2003 at 10:55 PM

If you''re being subjected to Matlab, I highly recommend getting a hold of the ''Mastering Matlab X'' book, where X is the appropriate number for the version of Matlab installed. This contains all of the information in the help files for the standard toolboxes and gives a better explanation. It''s also a lot easier to pull that off the desk to look at it than to browse the help menus.

As to how matlab is doing things... you can alway look at the code... at least for all of the non built-in functions, that is. Unfortunately, the basic trig functions are built-in (compiled library files) so you''re not going to get any help there.

Stick with the Matlab... it''s worth it in the end... it''ll save you a hell of a lot of time developing solutions to maths problems that are downright near impossible in other languages... and there is so much free software out there for Matlab...

Cheers,

Timkin

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