Guidelines on Questions
I know a lot about some areas, less about others, and little about some. Here are some guidelines about what kind of questions I'm prepared to answer. If there is any doubt, just ask.
- Any high school math question is OK.
- Any first-year university question is OK.
- Most higher-year university and graduate school subjects are good, if they are in the "pure mathematics" stream, and not too specialized. In particular, any of the following are fine:
- Anything with Algebra in the title
- Calculus/Vector Calculus/Real and Complex Analysis
- Anything in applied mathematics and statistics beyond the basic level will probably be difficult for me, but you might get lucky and land on an area that I know about.
If there is something difficult you are working on, and you have made some progress, please tell me how far you have gotten. If possible, scan your work and email it to me. Then I can give you exactly the help you need, and not waste my time (and your money!) explaining things you already know. Also, if there is a website for the course, please send me the link, so I can see the syllabus, what textbook is being used, etc.
I am here to help people learn mathematics, not to help people avoid learning by doing their work for them. Here in North America, lots of problems are assigned, and solutions are handed in by the students for grading, but they count for only a small amount of the final grade. The point of such assignments is to help the student learn by doing. I don't think any professor minds students getting help to solve such problems, provided that such help is used to give the student new understanding, which they then use to write their own solutions. As soon as a student starts copying someone else's solution without understanding, it is considered academic dishonesty. Tests and exams are not learning situations, but are meant to assess how much the student has already learned. Any outside help is forbidden. Please don't ask me to do something your instructor would disapprove of.