Section 1 The Goal of Onboarding to Mathematics
Welcome to Overview of Mathematics! This book is different in its aim from most mathematics texts that you’ll encounter. Whereas most textbooks will dig into the details of a particular topic (one topic, no doubt, worth the effort it takes to dig into), Onboarding to Mathematics will look at a variety of topics.
Who is this book for?
Most in-coming mathematics majors probably choose their major because of the success they had in high school. I chose to study mathematics in college just because I enjoyed my high school courses and wanted to do some more math. But what do math majors do? What is in store for the freshman math major?
This text is for the young math major (and anyone interested in the things that undergraduate mathematics thinks abouts) to get a glimpse of things on the path that they have began walking upon.
What this book is not
We should mention that this book is not exhaustive in any sense. We will not turn over every stone on any given subject and will look at these subjects at a somewhat surface level. We also admit that certain things will be left out, but we are confident those topics will be addressed at a sophisticated level in separate courses.
So what is the point of this book?
"Onboarding" is the process of introducing a new person into the culture and customs of an organization, and that is exactly what this text is about. Onboarding to Mathematics seeks to introduce students to the wonderful world of mathematics and its vibrant community.
In particular, we hope to introduce
- the culture of the mathematics community both locally at Belhaven along with the broader community of mathematicians across the world,
- snapshots of common math topics in interactive ways,
- and skills to maximize success as a student.
And we hope to have some fun while doing it.
Let’s get started!
