Without a goal or focus it can be hard to find algorithms that have meaning. Writing algorithms without a goal leaves you without focus and, although you may have written some good functions it'll be harder to know where they can be properly applied without some form of goal or project to work towards.
To me, an appropriate way to learn is to conceptualize a goal. If what you want to start with is a calculator then make one using only the basic +, - operators and maybe binary functions if you care to. Modulus, Multiplication, Power functions, Division and others can be accomplished with simple uses of +/- and building up from there.
For me, a good project was a mobile game that uses a home built physics engine. Collission detection, "bouncing", gravity and the complexity of sprite drawing/manipulation was enough of a goal to apply moderately complex trig that was essential in school. I now have a portfolio of very diverse and extremely useful sprite functions that I built on my own that I can reuse in other projects.
I wrote my own heuristic algorithm for battleship that I'd argue is the best possible AI without allowing it to have memory or cheating... it all started with looking at the problem space and determining how simple things I already know (stats) applied to the problem and figured how to apply it from there.
To me, an appropriate way to learn is to conceptualize a goal. If what you want to start with is a calculator then make one using only the basic +, - operators and maybe binary functions if you care to. Modulus, Multiplication, Power functions, Division and others can be accomplished with simple uses of +/- and building up from there.
For me, a good project was a mobile game that uses a home built physics engine. Collission detection, "bouncing", gravity and the complexity of sprite drawing/manipulation was enough of a goal to apply moderately complex trig that was essential in school. I now have a portfolio of very diverse and extremely useful sprite functions that I built on my own that I can reuse in other projects.
I wrote my own heuristic algorithm for battleship that I'd argue is the best possible AI without allowing it to have memory or cheating... it all started with looking at the problem space and determining how simple things I already know (stats) applied to the problem and figured how to apply it from there.