July 23

Monday July 23, 2007 5:50 am Lethbridge

It is +15 C with a high forecast of +37 C. Sunrise 5:49 Sunset 21:26 Hours of daylight: 15:37

A. Morning Musings

5:50 am

Yesterday was hot and the forecast is for an even hotter one today. Yesterday we had temperatures in the 30's for 9 continuous hours with a high of 35 which held for 3 hours. Today the forecast high is 37. Where the bloody hell are we?

We watched the fourth Harry Potter movie, "The Goblet of Fire" yesterday afternoon.

This then leads to the following plan for today:

Immediate	Description	Time
Literature	Continue reading "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami	2 hr
Mathematics	Continue ch. 1 of "Abstract Algebra" by Herstein	1 hr
Mathematics	Complete problems 2.1 - 2.12 of "The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems"	1 hr

C. Actual Learning Activities

7:30 am

Mathematics 24

July 23, 2007

7:30 am

This morning I decided to return to calculus.

The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems (2006) W. Michael Kelley

Chapter 2 Polynomials

Here are my scans (original at color - magazine, 200 dpi, export at width of 600 pixels) of the problems I completed in a one hour session this morning.

calculus

7:45 am

Most of these problems were boring - just the mechanical manipulation of symbols. However the example of even-numbered roots and absolute values was instructive. Even when boring, it is reassuring to realize that some of these high school algebra exercises are still easy.

At the same time, I am aware that I do not fully understand the derivation of the various laws of exponents and the significance of the notational conventions when it comes to fractional and negative exponents.