I have been studying electricity as a hobby, using a highschool textbook, partially documented here. I am trying to leave no stone unturned, meaning that I'm trying to understand any and all concepts and terminology that the book presents. I am now reading about generators and how they produce AC. The chapter also explains how the voltage can at any time/point in the cycle be calculated using sinus. While I understand the gist of it, I don't understand the math behind it, because I simply suck at math. I almost failed math in highschool.... I'm fairly confident I could go on without understanding the math behind why and how the voltage cycles between polarities, but my somewhat neurodiverse brain simply won't let me. I want to, nay, I need to understand it.
So, should I:
- grab a highschool math book and start from scratch until I reach the chapter on sinus?
- only read up on sinus and whatever knowledge turns out to be a prerequisite to understand it (with a risk of cascading backwards...)?
- other recommendations?
This is not a question about how generators work and I am not asking you to explain sinus to me here. I am asking for advise on how to (re)learn math at my age of 30+. I can invest about six hours per weekend. I am eager to learn! Please advise! ๐
Short version: Start at whatever math level you feel you can do confidently, grab that textbook, and work up from there. I highly recommend the Singapore method - there is a reason Singapore leads the world in math scores.
Long version: I actually never grasped math at all in school due to a combination of undiagnosed dyscalculia/bad math teaching in elementary and teachers who would get frustrated and do it for me on tests in middle/high school. I could memorize steps long enough to fake my way through a unit, but I had NO grasp of the actual material. (I did great in geometry because proofs required explaining why you get a result, not just "do these steps.")
So in my 40s, crying over basic conversions on the amateur radio exam, I actually bought myself a set of elementary math textbooks and started from counting and number relationships (pairs of numbers that make 10 for example).
IT CHANGED MY LIFE. And algebra onward was easy because I finally learned to understand the relationships, not just memorize steps.
So yeah. Start with the math you know and look for books/materials that clarify how you get certain results and not just what steps to plug in. Make it interesting to you. Is my two cents.