[sdiy] SDIY MATH GOALS--need real help!

[Tim Stinchcombe]

> i feel i have gotten about as far as i can in understanding 
> many electronic books and topics in the last few years 
> without knowing ANY math beyond basic pre-algebra.

<<snip etc.>>

OK Dan, I'm going to offer a wee apology here - having recommended that Korn
& Korn analogue computing book, and then you posted you'd gotten a copy but
were having difficulty in understanding the schematics, I pulled my copy off
the shelf and started skimming the early chapters. I quickly saw that if
read in the right order there shouldn't be too much of a problem with the
circuit diagrams (adequately dealt with by a number of responders), but the
thing that *did* then strike me was that there *is* an *awful* lot of maths
in there! So I am sorry if I misled you (or anyone else for that matter)
into thinking it would be a walk in the park! Considering the subject matter
that is hardly surprising I guess - a certain amount of effort *will* have
to be invested in order to understand it properly.

However I totally applaud your resolve to do something about it! Many of the
comments already posted contain some very good advice, so I'll try not to
repeat it, but will add:

- calculus: yes you will need some. Synth circuits are loaded with
integrators and other things which rely on it, and some basic understanding
of integration and differential equations will be a boon (barely a day goes
by without my writing down 'i = C*dv/dt' for a cap and working up from
there)

- as already alluded to by others, don't try and learn tons of stuff at
once: take it in bite-sized chunks; work as far as you can, when you hit an
obstacle, take off another chunk, read up what is needed to fix that and get
you going again, and move on.

And (as already mentioned) it is a shame that so many people get turned off
maths because they 'can't see the relevance in the real world'. The actual
maths per se is only a part of it: one of the great things about learning
mathematics is that it teaches you *how to solve problems*, which is an
incredibly useful skill in whatever real-world situation you find yourself
in. I'm currently analysing the effect of all the coupling capacitors around
the loop in the TB-303 filter (they all add high-pass effects, and I'm
certain this will impinge into the audio range, and so add to the character
of the sound): the maths I'm using isn't all that hard, but what *is* hard
is that I keep getting 'stuck' on something, with little clue as to how to
resolve it and often for days at time, usually requiring a good deal of
head-scratching and book reading until my understanding increases to the
point where I finally become 'unstuck' and can get going again. And usually
when I do, it is often accompanied with the (often dumb) feeling that it was
actually quite easy but I just couldn't 'get it' a first sight.

So yes, these things do take 'application', but the reward is always the
self-satisfaction of having 'cracked it'!

Tim
__________________________________________________________
Tim Stinchcombe 

Cheltenham, Glos, UK
email: tim102 at tstinchcombe.freeserve.co.uk
www.timstinchcombe.co.uk