Stewart's Precalculus

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Zaqiqu

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I've spent the last two months working for several hours each night on Stewart's Precalculus. Overall, I would say it is an excellent book; however, in a number of regards, it is most definitely lacking.
I find that most of the examples are simplistic whereas the questions are complicated. I enjoy mathematics, despite having had very shoddy teachers (the kind of teacher that would prefer to be coaching than teaching) in my day, and work hard to persevere no matter the difficulty.
Chapter 9: Vectors in Two and Three Dimensions, was a piece of cake up to 9.5. This stuff about the right hand rule is confusing beyond measure. I put my faith in mathematical axiom, not mnemonic. I would very much appreciate a more succinct, yet comprehensive description of how this rule is applied, preferably without mention of hands, fingers, and thumbs, and based to the approximate level of somebody having completed the first 9 chapters of the aforementioned textbook. I have tried searching online, but this concept alone seems to leave me incomprehensibly befuddled, and the more I read, the more confused I end up.

Tack så mycket
Danke schön
Merci
 
Zaqiqu said:
I've spent the last two months working for several hours each night on Stewart's Precalculus. Overall, I would say it is an excellent book; however, in a number of regards, it is most definitely lacking.
I find that most of the examples are simplistic whereas the questions are complicated. I enjoy mathematics, despite having had very shoddy teachers (the kind of teacher that would prefer to be coaching than teaching) in my day, and work hard to persevere no matter the difficulty.
Chapter 9: Vectors in Two and Three Dimensions, was a piece of cake up to 9.5. This stuff about the right hand rule is confusing beyond measure. I put my faith in mathematical axiom, not mnemonic. I would very much appreciate a more succinct, yet comprehensive description of how this rule is applied, preferably without mention of hands, fingers, and thumbs, and based to the approximate level of somebody having completed the first 9 chapters of the aforementioned textbook. I have tried searching online, but this concept alone seems to leave me incomprehensibly befuddled, and the more I read, the more confused I end up.

Tack så mycket
Danke schön
Merci
Click to expand...


Please post a problem for which the book is proposing to use right-hand-rule.
 
Subhotosh Khan said:
So you define teaching as SPOON-FEEDING ??!!
Click to expand...

Not in the slightest. I have worked very hard to acquire that knowledge which I have managed to acquire, and the only quality I ever wanted was the same. Instead, I had teachers who spoon fed us, and the result was a class of students who couldn't do anything on their own.
 
Subhotosh Khan said:
Please post a problem for which the book is proposing to use right-hand-rule.
Click to expand...

I believe I have already posed my question.
Without making use of hands, fingers, thumbs, or other mnemonic devices, please give a mathematical explanation of the right-hand rule, roughly to the level of somebody proficient in Stewart's Precalculus.
 
Zaqiqu said:
I believe I have already posed my question.
Without making use of hands, fingers, thumbs, or other mnemonic devices, please give a mathematical explanation of the right-hand rule, roughly to the level of somebody proficient in Stewart's Precalculus.
Click to expand...
Memorize the vector-product axis associations. (That is, memorize the axis which corresponds to the cross product of two given vectors.) Then memorize the rules which follow. ;)
 
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