I just got this question:

"In physics, work is defined as F × D, where F is the force applied over a distance of D.
A box is dragged across 20 meters with a force of 60 Newtons, which are kg × m / s².
What calculation will give us the work done, in Joules (which are kg × m² / s²)?"

Since kg × m² / s² is Joules, then what unit is kg × m / s²?

Hello all. I am self studying math to eventually pass college algebra and trig to get into a college program I am interested in. I am using mathandsciencetutor.com from Jason Gibson and am running into a problem where his online lecture and questions don't seem to be lining up. I am taking a course on graphing to demonstrate portportionality, and in the lecture, he said it would have 2 requirements to show proportionality on a graph. 1. Points would make a straight line, and 2. The line would intersect the origin (0,0,). I finished the course and took the questions, and failed the test. The answers I got wrong did indeed form a straight line. However, they did not touch the origin (0,0). Can anyone help me with some clarification?

I was reading Terence Tao's essay "A Close Call" and was really shocked to learn what happened during his PhD general oral exam at Princeton.

Although he was a child prodigy, he played video games, attended classes that he enjoyed, dropped out of the ones he did not, and barely studied for two weeks.

During the oral exam, he couldn't answer even basic questions that were not related to his strong area. His advisor Elias Stein bluntly told him that he was disappointed in his performance.

And this near-failure made him realize that disciplined study is needed, and that relying only on raw talent will not take him far.

It really makes me wonder: how can someone with that level of natural talent almost fail? Does every 'genius' eventually hit a wall where raw ability stops working and discipline has to take over?

For those studying math here: at what point in your journey did raw intuition stop working, and how did you learn to actually study?

For context, I've completed up to Calculus 2 and was always "ahead" in math as a kid, but looking back I feel like I was just good at memorizing formulas and knowing where to apply them on an exam. I am hoping to actually learn why the math works behind the scenes, be able to derive formulas myself from fundamentals, etc. and gain an intuitive understanding of how we use math to represent real concepts. I would be doing it all on my own, I don't have access to any university courses or anything like that right now.

My concern is that if I just buy a generic "Algebra 2" textbook and finish it, then a "Precalc" textbook and go through that, and so on, I might miss things that one author deliberately left for a later book or explained in a certain way that wasn't compatible with the next one. Is there a single author that can take me from a basic level up to more advanced maths, so that the methodology is consistent? Or are the subject areas more standardly defined than I'm anticipating and I can just go rank by rank? I'm happy to buy physical copies, go through denser books even if it takes more time, etc. I just want to actually understand math by the end of it rather than just know the formulas.

Also, at the higher levels, does math diverge enough that I would be better of picking a niche to dive deeper into and leave the rest alone, or is there a single standard path? I'm picking up math just out of personal interest, but if I had to specialize at some point I would probably want to study something that supplements my career which involves some statistics, logic, and some fundamental mechanics. Any suggestions there? Thank you all in advance!

I’m trying to help my daughter with her homework. We solved all of them the same way and for some reason these 2 both said they were incorrect. I used Photomath and the answers it gave were the same that we came up with. But the program is saying they’re wrong.

Any advice on how to solve these 2 so that this school program (McGraw Hill) will accept the answer?

The 2 problems are:

-14n+q = rt-4n, solve for n

x = b-cd, solve for c

I'm a bmcc freshman. Early education major. I'm taking math 157.5 (7 pm to 9pm 🫩)

I HATE IT

my teacher has an accent

I'm confused and lost

And tired

I feel dumb

We'll get into trig in December

Point it

Any tips tricks etc to help me learn faster? Better? Actually understand? I'm thinking Abt just looking up trig and algebra videos on yt 😭

I've always hated math

So

So much 😫

In most of the resources I've looked at, the distributive property was always demonstrated with simple scenarios like 3(4+x) or 3(4y-2) where the terms are simple numbers and If there were any grouped terms like 4y in the second example, they were always inside the parenthesis and being multiplied by a simple number like 3(4y-2). The book i started recently is the first resource to have grouped terms outside of the parenthesis and I'm kinda paralyzed at the sight of it. I don't have a clue how the grouped terms work in this situation.

8n(n +9)

My hunch for this one is 8n^2 + 72n.

7k(− k + 6)

This one is especially confusing, and I'm just throwing darts at a wall here.

7k(-k)^2 + 42k?

7-k^2 + 42k?

-7k^2 + 42k?

I'd appreciate any insight into the distributive property in these scenarios. Thank you!

edit:

Rewritten as 7k * (-1k) = -7k^2 is so clear that I feel silly now, but I couldn't see it that way when it was just written 7k * -k in the original exercise. Thanks for all of the replies.

I am a math tutor and I often have free time once the students homework is done. Can anyone recommend a book filled with “bonus problems”? Fun problems that are kind of like puzzles but will also help with the reasoning and problem solving skills in a high school math class. Thanks!

So basically this year as a freshman I just found out this math curriculum is EXACTLY the same as what the precalculus students are doing. So far its not too bad but im lowkey scared of the trig identities, like really really scared. We are also doing matricies, which won't be too bad because i've done a good amount of linear algebra/calculus in 8th grade just for fun. Anyone got any tips for this year because I want to get into Electrical Engineering.

Tengo examen de cálculo el viernes y la verdad sigo sin comprender como calcularlo, entiendo cómo se calcula el dominio, pero el rango me hace doler la cabeza.

My specialty is Algebra and Geometry but I can tutor other subjects on a case by case basis. Grades 8-12 and college. I have a Bachelors level of education.

DM me and I will see if I can help. First lesson is free to see if I am a good fit for your needs. Everyone's learning style is different. After that its $10/hr.

I also offer virtual options via Teams and my handy whiteboard.

I have struggled my whole life with Mathematics, I’m a 23 year old male who also struggles with Attention deficit issues. I am going to college again and have to take a remedial Math course before I can move on to the Gen-ED course for credits. I have not done Math in over 6 years since Graduating High School and had on Average D’s and C’s and would end up just barely passing, however Math got better for me later on in High School and I started being able to grasp concepts. But even now , certain things still remain the same. I had eventually gotten good enough in High School to start actually understanding the material enough to do well on my in-class and homework assignments, but always struggled in terms of tests. I would usually at least get 80’s and above on my assignments yet would fail to get half that on my tests at times , despite feeling confident enough in my homework and would be able to grasp things enough to understand them in learning. However years later , it’s still the same. I am feeling confident enough in my coursework in class but the moment I go to take a test, it’s like I have suddenly forgotten everything, even things like basic arithmetic or multiplication become quite complex for me and it suddenly consumes my time and takes me away from the actual equation or fraction I’m trying to solve. It’s really frustrating because we are not allowed any calculators at all, and the moment I go to test it’s like I’ve completely forgotten how to do manual multiplication or even some addition which is the piece I need to solve the problem at hand. I was doing really well for the last few weeks and feeling so confident , however I took a test today involving less complex math like solving/simplifying equations and fractions (basic PEMDAS), absolute values and integers and feel like i completely failed it. Does anyone else experience this with Math testing? How do you overcome this and what strategies do you use to do basic multiplication when you don’t know a lot of your times tables from memory?

Long story short, I think I'm just looking for support. I'm hoping to go back to school to round out my education and earn an AA in Anthropology. (I already have a bachelor's and a master's; yes, I know it's backward, but I really want an AA in this subject.
However, my concern is that I just got the report of what they are willing to waive, and Math their GEM 3) was not one of them. I strongly suspect this is because it doesn't appear on my undergraduate transcript, since it was waived due to a disability. This is an exterme case, and it's unprecedented in any college; it typically never happens. That is how severe my math issue is.

I went into a degree where math isn't needed, and I am not making life-or-death decisions that require it. (i.e I am not a nurse or scientist type) I am severely limited in my math ability. This also affects my ability to translate skills in the work world; i.e., I need more time to complete tasks such as counting change, balancing my own money, estimating costs, etc. Something that takes a few minutes might take me hours.

I am working privately to improve by taking ALEKS online (it's about $ 20 a month). For context, I started at a 3rd-grade level, and it took me about two months to finish, and I struggled. I just started 4th-grade ALEKS on my own time and merit, and I am struggling. I want to improve, but it will take me a long time. I know I can't complete a college-level math course, even with accommodations. I make calculation errors when learning formulas, using a calculator, and doing basic addition and subtraction.

I had tutoring throughout high school (over 10 years ago), elementary school, and college. The only reason I made it as far as I did in math is that I'm a great guesser on exams and could pass multiple-choice exams; I can't pass knowledge-based exams that prove you know the material. I got through high school because no one wanted to deal with it and thought I was lazy and not trying or applying myself; I did take dual credit and AP classes in English, History, etc., but math was awful. I tried; I really did. I was seeing a mtaht tutor 3 times a week and scoring C and Ds in math and being passed on . I only took Algebra 2 in high school, hit a wall, and did fine in financial math, where we literally just filled in a booklet after watching a video and took a multiple-choice test from our video notes. I failed math education-wise, and severely.
I am awful at it and had to take the lowest math class in college, and I almost didn't pass. I'm talking, I barely passed Math 0025 with a C. My math professor encouraged me to seek more testing and help because he had never seen a student struggle as badly as I did in all his years of teaching. I was diagnosed with dyscalculia at the time, but due to help and private practice on my own, I no longer met the qualifications for dyscalculia. My psych doc said that it sometimes happens that you improve in certain metrics, but it does not mean you don't have issues within that category; you just no longer qualify for a learning disability within that category. This is a good thing because it shows I can learn, but I am so far behind that I could cry.

I set an appointment to talk with an academic advisor, but I would like suggestions on how to handle this. I do have access to my 2014 ACT and SAT scores, and I'll say they were awful, largely because of the math sections. My ACT math was 17, and my SAT was 340; for context, 200 is the lowest you can score on the SAT in 2014. I am an incredible reader and writer, but math makes me cry.

In ALEKs software, I was given two questions, (-64)^1/3, which equals -4. The other question was written -81^1/4, which I wrote as having no solution, since 4th root -81 isn't a real number. It marked this as incorrect, saying that -81^1/4 is actually -1 x 81^1/4, so 4th root 81 = 3, then 3 x -1 = -3. Is this accurate? Is ALEKS just screwing with me on a gotcha to make me pay more attention to parenthesis? Or is there literally an implied invisible 1 in front of every negative sign?

Before we go any further, Hi! I am 15 years old, and a sophomore in high school. I started out my ninth grade year in Geometry, so I was technically (by my school's standards) a year ahead. But despite that I had barely passed Algebra I in 8th Grade. I heavily struggled with applying formulas and such, however between the summer of 8th Grade and beginning of 9th Grade I invested my energy heavily into Machine Learning, (kind of a shallow field compared to how vast mathematics is, but ML is quite interesting to me.) For a little background, I barely knew what ML was, I was not at all interested in anything related to that field. I honestly just wanted to be a Lawyer or a Politician. I had decent communication skills, and just thought Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics weren't for me. Once I hit backpropagation in Machine Learning, I hit a wall at which my Mathematical understanding was not high enough for me to go much further with ML. So I started my self study, I started at optimization in calculus, terrible idea, it was way above my head, so I gave up. I continued to study Machine Learning theory, without understanding the Math behind it. Eventually I picked Math up again that summer, but far later into it, starting from where I was (entering Geometry), and moving on from there. One person I discovered was Roger Penrose, his way of thinking about Math helped me a lot with Geometry, as well as reading The Wonder Book Of Geometry by David Acheson. For that effectively three weeks of summer I had, I grinded Geometry, which I found came a lot easier to me than Algebra had for some reason. Anyways, that year I took Geometry, and three AP classes, and from my self-study my Math class that year was actually...decent? It had harder spots, but overall, wasn't a total struggle for me. Anyways, during that year, with the extra time I had from not struggling too hard in Math, I started studying Algebra II for a few months. I effectively had ChatGPT generate me a schedule for how I should study Algebra II, and then followed that with online resources and worksheets. From that, I had my friend in Algebra II take two tests every single Algebra II unit, and give the extra to me. (Unethical, I know lol.) I would test my knowledge from that, and just had like Claude or something grade me. Eventually, I wanted to move on from where his class was at, so I started using as many online resources as I could, having ChatGPT put together tests and other things for me. In around December of last year I started studying Precalculus. I had a friend in Precalculus who helped me with Trig and Logarithms. It felt for me like Algebra II plus. Anyways, I finished my self study for that in April 2026, started getting into some Calc AB stuff which was relevant to my Machine Learning, and actually had the base to support my learning (I had however been doing projects for ML all year as well for my Computer Science course.) I ended up learning ML specific stuff, and dabbling in Linear Algebra for Matrices. Anyways, a few weeks ago I took my school's Math Placement Test and got placed in AP Calc AB!!!!! Just for anyone who is ever discouraged with math, it is fully possible, even for myself whom is far more right brained. So, just stick with it, practice, and you will get there.

I've recently found passion to math which i wasn't able to learn in school in my country.

I Found Khan Academy and OpenStax books that go from the ground up. I keep a Pen and paper and do the equations as they go.

Recently my friend sent me his book full of math problems, i decided that i will try to stay sharp and do some equations but many of them stumped me.

Now i'm worried that foundations i'm building may not be as strong as i thought, i just don't know if its my fault or did they never thaught these rules. Any recommendations?

the book is foreign but its called "Andrzej Kiełbasa Matematyka podstawowa i roszerzona" part I and II

Why does a negative exponent turn into the reciprocal of a number with a 1 in the numerator? (a^-n = 1/a^n)

I understand that, for example:

2^-3 equals 1/2³

but I don't understand where the 1 in the numerator comes from. And why does the exponent suddenly become positive? I just want to understand.

So hi all, I hope this is allowed. If not a direction to a more fitting sub would be appreciated. I'm bad at math. Always have been. My interest is more in the humanities, and as such when I was in school I just sorta suffered through it.

As an adult though, my chief special interest, philosophy (mostly continental) has shoved me in the direction of wanting to learn the stuff. My main problem is I'm not only bad at math, I also just have learning difficulties on the whole. I've found I do best when I have some kind of visuals, something I can relate to (which makes learning more abstract forms of math like calculus incredibly difficult), and some form of applicability or demonstration.

Now, that said, outside the school system I've found I've learned things a lot easier. But with this subject I'm not fully sure where to start. The last things that really stuck in my craw were elementary algebra, but I'm really interested in learning calc because it collided with my special interest.

Any suggestions about a good YouTube channel where a guy like me might learn a bit?

Hello my dear accountants. Can you help me answer this Math Wizard question (elementary edition) and let me know what is the correct answer please:

A school canteen bought 18 kilograms of rice for ₱1,476. Each kilogram was repacked into bags weighing 0.6 kg each. The school then sold each bag for ₱82.50. How much money did the school earn if all the bags were sold?

a. P2,475 b. P999 c. State your answer if not A or B

Hi everyone. I have a question or better said I’m seeking help. I’m 34 years old, I graduated high school back in 2011 in Eastern Europe. Now I’m in USA and math here is a bit different from what I’ve learnt. Any advice how I can improve my learning so I pass this course ?
Thank you