online tutoring in prime number theory

[jasong]

I don't have a job at the moment, but if it's even half of what I hope it will be when I get it, I'll have enough cash to do this(I hope).

I did a little searching online and am not totally sure whether or not I found what I was looking for.

I'm hoping to find an intelligent, patient teacher who's willing to help me figure out where my weaknesses are and take me to my learning threshold in mathematics. I don't know if a person like this exists and if anybody knows of an online tutoring place that is willing to specialize, or perhaps someone on these forums is willing to use their tools(the service's) to help me(and get paid by me) I'd appreciate it.

Maybe I'll get flamed, but I thought I'd ask anyway. I'm running blind in terms of what's out there, so any advice is appreciated, including second-hand advice.

[jasong]

I've got a new idea, and probably a better one:

Powerpoint presentations

I've never actually dealt with them, except by viewing them at local Collegiate Christian Ministry meetings(wow, what a mouthful) but I'm thinking they would be more useful in the long run. Basically, more bang for the buck.

I'm going to go research it and, even if nobody interested right now in helping me, maybe I'll be able to come up with my own stuff later on.

If anybody is interested in putting up a web page with the presentations(if they're ever made), I'll shell out the first $25 bucks to support it.

Comments?

[Peter Nelson]

Jason, there are some users who are probably willing to share their knowledge for free.

If I understand your post you would like to know specifically about prime numbers rather than all of maths generally. There are already some very good resources online like the wolfram pages or Chris Caldwell's prime pages. Go and read these if you have not already done so.

Although your powerpoint idea could work, I think web pages are better.
Nonetheless, learning about prime95 and associated projects, various tests, why they work etc is a bit bewildering. In my own case what I have taught myself by reading the forum and other stuff online goes beyond any treatment of primes I had at school, college or university, so the info is there if you look hard for it. It would be nice if there was some resource collecting these topics and links where people could learn depending on their specific interest area and ability level.

The forum user "cheesehead" wrote the following a while back. Maybe personal message him and ask if he has anything ready you could read through: Regards, Peter

P.S. If you have money why not offer to buy hardware with it or donate money to GIMPS? instead of "paying" which might strike some as mercenary.

cheesehead wrote.....

I'm planning to compile a more extensive GIMPS/forum/related-math FAQ than we have at present. I'd start by systematically combing through past forum (and mailing list) submissions, cataloging the most frequent and/or important questiions and the clearest, most informative answers (including those in existing FAQs). Then the result would be a new edition (possibly with changes in existing FAQs).

A primary design criterion of the new edition would be the ease with which veteran forum members could use it to answer new postings by simply linking to the appropriate FAQ in response to any question we'd all seen before. ("My CPU runs 100%", "ROUND OFF (0.5) > 0.40". "How does L-L work?", ...) My idea is that this new edition would be in HTML on the mersenneforum.org website with lots of indexing to make the above criterion possible, though details could vary.

I intend to have a first draft ready by July-ish.

My intention is to be able to, as often as possible, answer a newbie question NOT with the old

"read the FAQ or readme" or "here's my explanation (for the umpteenth time)" or even "do a search in subforum ABC",

but with

"Here's an answer: link to specific FAQ item about what newbie asked. If this doesn't answer all your question(s), please post a followup here."

And have that "canned" somewhere so that it'd take only a few clicks to insert it as response.


Quote:
Sometimes, one person asks a "dumb" question that another 10 don't know the answer to either, so a single response can educate all 11 readers although we have no visibility of this.


And my vision is to enable veterans to quickly and easily respond to most frequently-asked "dumb" questions by simply pointing to a specific FAQ, as often as possible, rather than recomposing an answer for the 50th time. Or maybe point to a specific FAQ, then supplement it quickly.

[mfgoode]

Good idea Peter and Cheesehead.
I am willing to offer my services in whatever way I can. It will be educational for me also.
Thank you
Mally