Previously I was inconsistantly dealing with the polarity of multiplied numbers (Positive x positive = positive, Negative x negative = positive, Postive x negative = negative, Negative x positive = negative). This is much clearer to me now,  but we had to go all the way back to the number line till I was satisfied with the reasoning behind these rules. I told you my knowledge was patchy!

Although it was very much a lesson of revision and clarification we also covered the following topics:

The Arithmettic of Symbols.
Powers/Indices
Substitution and Formulae
Binary (Briefly)

was mixing up terms like 2a with 2

The first few sessions I have had with my Dad have been about identifying and patching up the holes in my Maths knowledge from school. I was missing some basic foundation stones of algebra and have begun to address them.

We are working from two books, the first adequatley written, the second, less than adequately written but with a relevant syllabus. The books in question are ‘Foundation Maths’ By Anthony Croft and Robert Davison (Fourth edition) and the second is ‘Beginning Math and Physics for Game Programmers’ by Wendy Stahler. Croft and Davison write well enough for me to understand unaided, although as you might expect, I have come across sections where my questions on a topic are left unanswered.  Stahler’s offering on the other hand, frequently uses untranslated terminology and makes assumptions of her reader that in my case at least make it more difficult to progress through the book without assistance from another source. Luckily, that’s where my Dad comes in to the rescue.

So far, the topics we have covered are:

Simplifying algebraic equations.
Transposing formulae.
Simultaneous equations.
The straight line.

I hated maths at school. I was the sicknening cliche of an inevitable art student. As uni came to a close I realised, that actually, academia interested me. Suddenly, Maths and Physics were cool. Unfortunately I had squandered the chance to formally study these interesting subjects but, as luck would have it, my Dad, the illustrious lecturer of education and author of the legendary lexicon ‘Data Handling in the Primary School’, John F Lodge had studied maths at University.  After graciously agreeing to tutor me, I once again had a solid frame work from which I could build a maths education.