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I am a computer science graduate and slacked my way through high school and college and don't have a solid understanding of the basic concepts in mathematics I also don't have the mathematical way of thinking. I am trying to build a product which requires understanding loads of theory, on the subject at hand. But whenever mathematics comes into the picture it goes above and over my head. This question will hopefully be useful to people like me in similar situations. I am willing to invest years to learn the basics right.

From the top of my head, i can think of the following areas that i have no familiarity

  • Harmonic Numbers
  • Infinite series
  • Probability
  • Combinatorics,permutation and combination
  • Set theory
  • Discrete mathematics
  • Trigonometry
  • Calculus
  • Logarithms
  • Matrices and determinants
  • Vectors

If you know of any more fundamental areas that i missed out please do add it along with reference books for the same.

qwrty
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  • A lot of these might be well grouped together. For instance, trigonometry, infinite series, and logarithms are typically covered in a basic pre-calculus/calculus class. You also often see set theory, basic combinatorics and probability appear in discrete mathematics classes. If you could get a good calculus text and a good discrete mathematics text, you could cover a lot of ground here. – Alex Wertheim Aug 06 '13 at 16:43
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    See my answer here: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/427868/relearning-from-the-basics-to-calculus-and-beyond?lq=1 and search out others on MSE like: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/69060/what-is-a-good-book-for-learning-math-from-the-ground-up?rq=1, http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/39427/a-good-book-for-learning-mathematical-trickery?rq=1, http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/38854/basic-book-about-mathematical-proofs?rq=1 – Amzoti Aug 06 '13 at 16:45
  • Does this answer your question? Learning mathematics as if an absolute beginner? – user1147844 Apr 30 '23 at 22:48

2 Answers2

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Probability - Introduction to Probability Theory William Feller

Linear Algebra - Gilbert Strang

Calculus - Apostol Calculus Vol 1 and 2

Number theory - Hardy and Wright Theory of numbers

These books will give you a basic idea of these topics. These are comparitively easy to understand even for a high school student with a strong mathematical foundation. All the areas you have mentioned are included in these books.

Mathgrad
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Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science would be my suggestion for a book to consider in covering the basics of most of the areas you mention at least in terms of getting an understanding of the Abstract Algebra along with Calculus, Analysis and other areas of Mathematics.

JB King
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