>Although the title of Penrose's book sounds overly grand, it is >none the less a very serious book on differential geometry as >applied to physics.
Yes, it is (overly grand), much like a "wagon train scout" of the pioneer days pulling out a many-times-folded map of the route from St. Louis to California and spending an evening showing the settlers the things they need to know to prepare for the trip. > I think your goal to better understand it is > very laudable. Or "overly grand". <grin> Thanks for the encouragement -- it is much appreciated. I have not yet reach page 200 and I have already learned an amazing amount. > If there is anything in particular in this book > that you would like to discuss, I would be glad participate. > Maybe we can do some examples using Axiom? Please. I want to discuss everything, but I am probably not smart enough yet to figure out how to ask a good question. So far, I have been trying to learn Axiom & Maxima in parallel with reading this book and have only worked out some simple problems (like imaginary roots and some differentials.) I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I don't really understand how much of the work Axiom can do, nor really what the full capabilities of Axiom include. Even before this book I had entertained the belief that it might be possible to learn "a lot of math" by following along through Calculus and Differential Equations text -- learning to the IDEAS, and letting the system do the tedious portions. This probably wouldn't be sufficient for a serious mathematician or engineer, but for me this is just a (serious) hobby. Perhaps seeing how to use Axiom to graph a conformal map, or to work through a Fourier transform would be interesting BUT this is merely the first thing that came to mind when searching (desperately) for something to request -- please substitute ANYTHING your prefer and I will ask for something else as soon as I have the prerequisites. > I think it is entirely appropriate to discuss Macaulay here. > In fact if there is continued interest, I would be very happy > to look into providing a web interface for Macaulay at the > Axiom Wiki, e.g. I know even less of Macaulay, but believe that would be useful, and it certainly would be very gracious of you. Please note, that I am NOT modest about my abilities nor about my intelligence, and any seeming "false modesty" above is in fact just reality: There is a LOT of math covered in the book which I have not studied, and even my Calculus and Diff Eq is rusty and spotty in places. Also: I have no particular preference for Maxima versus Axiom, and so with your help I will focus more of my attention on Axiom (and Macaulay2). Both of these fine programs do more than I can currently use. Thanks, -- Herb Martin _______________________________________________ Axiom-math mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-math
