the cool thing about differential geometry...
I'm still reading Pollard and Fletcher (and I'm still in Chapter 2). And the cool thing about this is: I took linear algebra and differential equations and third semester calculus after I started studying structural geology, and I understood the math by imagining geologic shapes in my head. It may have kept me from being able to mentally deal with 14-dimensional worlds, but I understood math by turning it into space. (And fortunately, I'm just a dumb field geologist, not a string theorist.)
And here's this book that takes that same math, and actually makes the connections explicit.
That's cool. Even if there's no way I can imagine this book speaking to my students. (On the other hand, I wonder if I could think of ways to explain pre-calculus in terms of geologic stuff? I've got a lot of students who have trouble making the mental leap from geology to math and back again.)
So, note to self: p. 50 in Pollard and Fletcher is a translation of potentially confusing math shorthand. Subscript notation for dummies field geologists.
And here's this book that takes that same math, and actually makes the connections explicit.
That's cool. Even if there's no way I can imagine this book speaking to my students. (On the other hand, I wonder if I could think of ways to explain pre-calculus in terms of geologic stuff? I've got a lot of students who have trouble making the mental leap from geology to math and back again.)
So, note to self: p. 50 in Pollard and Fletcher is a translation of potentially confusing math shorthand. Subscript notation for dummies field geologists.