I''m a very good programmer, and I am very good with trigonometry. But I need to brush up on my algebra and matrices so that I revup my game programming skills. So I''m looking for a good book on the subject. Thank You

Are you looking for a college/university like text book? I really like the text I used for my linear algebra course... it is called

Linear Algebra 3rd edition
Fraleigh and Beauregard
ISBN 0-201-52675-1

I like how it doesn''t go into the nitty gritty right away. It starts off easily with vectors and properties of vectors, and then to matrices. I have seen some books that have started with transformations and those sucked! There is a chapter on complex numbers as well.

hope that helps


"You won''t get wise with the sleep still in your eyes." - Neil Peart

I don''t know. I did pretty good with math in high school, but I just can''t remember what Algebra is, although I''m sure I took it.

I remember polynomials and that''s it.

I''m usually pretty good with books that go right into it. It all depends on the topic and how complex it is.

What I really want is a book which covers a lot of the different algebra topics if not everything. So if you think that book is good, I''ll check it out.

Thanks Don

ummm... are you talking about regular algebra?

linear algebra is a little different then the algebra in high-school. Still... this book will teach the concepts that are used in 3d programming (although I don''t know how to correlate them yet).

I would reccomend this book to get a strong basis on the theory of linear algebra and then rely on the web for more advanced applications of the material.

What level of school do you have? Are you a high-school student or are you in post-secondary? A first year university level calculus text has tons of information whether you want to know about sperical coordinate systems, 3D calculus, and other stuff and that related to gaming.

"You won''t get wise with the sleep still in your eyes." - Neil Peart

I''m a professional programmer. The only math I took in college was Business math. In high school I took all the required courses for math, because like everyone else in school I didn''t see a need for it.

Well I ended up being wrong!!! Big time WRONG!!!

Well here''s another story. I read a book review in Game Developer for a book called "3D Game Engine Design: A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics".

This book is supposedly filled with algebraic formulas.

So, now I think that I should learn some algebra for game programming. But the big question is, what algebra? Which is why I initially posted my question.

Mind you I haven''t gotten to the point where I can say, how do I do this. But I want to get a head start before that happens. And also a chance to learn something new.

Don

ok, then it is linear algebra that you need to learn and the book I reccomended still applies... right now I am not at the point of ''how do I do this'' and am mostly saying to myself ''how do I apply this''. Since it was just a pure math course I took, I didn''t learn the applications of linear algebra, just how to do it. Right now I am trying to build a linear algebra libray (is that what a graphics API is?) to exercise my understanding of the material. When it is working and fully functional I am going to try to apply all the stuff I have learned...

btw, like calculus, linear algebra is one of those things that eludes you for some time until you get those ''eureka'' moments. At least that is how it was for me...

"You won''t get wise with the sleep still in your eyes." - Neil Peart

I have gone to the publisher''s web site and saw the table of contents to the book you mentioned and it looks like it will provide what I need from it.

Thank you so much sir for your time.

I have gone to the publisher''s web site and saw the table of contents to the book you mentioned and it looks like it will provide what I need from it.

Thank you so much sir for your time.

No problem, just E-mail me if you have any questions.

I am definitely no expert (I had to repeat the course), but I could use the oppurtunity to brush up on some of the material. I also have a lot of sample exams (with answers) if you would like to use them to test yourself...

Am I sounding like a TA or what?

Well after I graduated from high school I wanted to go to the University of Waterloo here in Ontario, Canada. They used to be one of the best mathematics school in the world. Don''t know if they still are.

Anyways, my math grades weren''t that great. But I really wanted to get into that school. So, I found out that they had a mathematics contest.

Essentially you entered the contest and if you had a certain minimum grade they''d allow you to apply.

So I ordered these books which contained questions and answers to previous contests. And oh my Gawd. It was awful. I had no clue that the questions were asking. So ever since then I''ve wanted to upgrade my math.