Hi all,
I am learning by myself calculus and I am on page 865 of the Larson book of Calculus. I also watch Professor Leonard for explanation.
Till now everything is going relatively smoothly. Besides one thing and that is problem-solving questions.
When I get to those everything falls apart and it is getting really frustrating. I was speaking to my doctor about the math I was doing. And she said something I can still recall. Everyone can plug in numbers and do the number crunching and learn formulas but not everyone can think.
This is how I feel. I can do the exercises ok, but when the problem solving comes I crumble. And it is so frustrating. It seems like my brain gets garbled when I look at these and my mind becomes blank. Even when I try to get as much information out of the problem.
The problem is that I don't know how I can get better at it. Or if there are books how I can learn about that.
Take for example this problem.
"
A bomber is flying horizontally at an altitude of 3200 feet with a velocity of 400 feet per second when it releases a bomb. A projectile is launched 5 seconds later from a cannon at a site facing the bomber and 5000 feet from the point that was directly beneath the bomber when the bomb was released. The projectile is to intercept the bomb at an altitude of 1600 feet. Determine the required initial speed and angle of inclination of the projectile? (ignore air resistance).
"
Now after looking it up on the internet I finally got it when the answer was shown (although I still don't get why you would choose the angle to be 0 when the bomb is released).
How do you people know that the angle is zero when the bomb is released?
The point I am trying to make is that I have great great difficulty with all these problem-solving questions. Sometimes they seem to get things out of thin air. From somewhere I have never thought of. I have so many different problems with it. And I want to get better at it.
Can someone tell me what books are good for that? Or what I must do? Am I not smart enough? It is so frustrating.
It seems like you need another mindset to solve these problems.
So I can use all suggestions I can get to get better at it.
Thank you
I am learning by myself calculus and I am on page 865 of the Larson book of Calculus. I also watch Professor Leonard for explanation.
Till now everything is going relatively smoothly. Besides one thing and that is problem-solving questions.
When I get to those everything falls apart and it is getting really frustrating. I was speaking to my doctor about the math I was doing. And she said something I can still recall. Everyone can plug in numbers and do the number crunching and learn formulas but not everyone can think.
This is how I feel. I can do the exercises ok, but when the problem solving comes I crumble. And it is so frustrating. It seems like my brain gets garbled when I look at these and my mind becomes blank. Even when I try to get as much information out of the problem.
The problem is that I don't know how I can get better at it. Or if there are books how I can learn about that.
Take for example this problem.
"
A bomber is flying horizontally at an altitude of 3200 feet with a velocity of 400 feet per second when it releases a bomb. A projectile is launched 5 seconds later from a cannon at a site facing the bomber and 5000 feet from the point that was directly beneath the bomber when the bomb was released. The projectile is to intercept the bomb at an altitude of 1600 feet. Determine the required initial speed and angle of inclination of the projectile? (ignore air resistance).
"
Now after looking it up on the internet I finally got it when the answer was shown (although I still don't get why you would choose the angle to be 0 when the bomb is released).
How do you people know that the angle is zero when the bomb is released?
The point I am trying to make is that I have great great difficulty with all these problem-solving questions. Sometimes they seem to get things out of thin air. From somewhere I have never thought of. I have so many different problems with it. And I want to get better at it.
Can someone tell me what books are good for that? Or what I must do? Am I not smart enough? It is so frustrating.
It seems like you need another mindset to solve these problems.
So I can use all suggestions I can get to get better at it.
Thank you