Originally posted by fearlessleader
mathworld is a great sight if you want a clarification of something, or you want to understand something simpler, but is there a conviengnt startigy for using it to teach yourself compleatly new material?
I don't know about learning from mathworld (though I agree it's very useful for formulae etc), but there are some obvious free sources of maths knowledge:
- Wikipedia tends to be aimed at a general audience, so that might be a good place to look for a taster of unfamiliar concepts (ie it can answer questions like 'what the heck is Galois theory?'😉
- university websites these days often have lecture notes, so you can read those and then have a go at the relevant practice/exam questions from the same course (if you can get at them - some uni sites are restricted access)
- Many research papers are available on the internet, if you think you're up to it 😲
- As with most things, there are internet forums out there dedicated to maths. Ask questions there and you might get more helpful and numerous replies than here.
-finally, there's always good old libraries (especially university libraries, or libraries in studenty places) - books are not a bad way to learn maths by any means, though it's hard to know how useful a book will be until you have read some of it.