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Mathematics What was your favorite math subject in school and why?

What was your favorite math subject in school and why?

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ions said:
Yeah, there's quite a bit of math in chemistry too. So applied that would cover it. @AbbeyLee
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I googled it and I really don't think I know what I'm talking about lol. But I did read about maths problems that haven't been solved.

"Many mathematical problems have not yet been solved. These unsolved problems occur in multiple domains, including theoretical physics, computer science, algebra, analysis, combinatorics, algebraic, differential, discrete and Euclidean geometries, graph, group, model, number, set and Ramseytheories, dynamical systems, and partial differential equations. Some problems may belong to more than one discipline of mathematics and be studied using techniques from different areas." (Wikipedia)


Amazing stuff. I think I'll stick to words, but respect to people who are able to think this way.
 
Chemistry is electrons, protons, neutrons. And you can study the forces they exhibit on each other with electrostatics, magnetism, and electromagnetic radiation. It gets more technical than that. Equilibrium, kinetics, thermodynamics.

What I did is synthesize new coordination compounds and then used spectroscopy to study molecular orbitals. @AbbeyLee
 
ions said:
Yeah, there's quite a bit of math in chemistry too. So applied that would cover it. @AbbeyLee
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bah, chemistry is just applications of the pauli exclusion principle. physics is the only science!

chemistry is fucking complicated maths though. even figuring out orbitals for simple atoms. i tried to do it during my undergrad, spent 4 hours on a saturday afternoon being a total nerd doing extra curricular maths trying to figure out where the quantum numbers came from by solving the schrodinger equation for the hydrogen atom, got to that line and my text book told me that it was beyond the scope of that book and to consult an advanced maths textbook. i had to figure it out during my phd and iirc it relates to legendre polynomials (its definitely somebodies polynomials) because they are the solutions for particular types of differential equations.

to be fair physics has its fair share of hard maths, tensor algebra hurt my little head. and both physics and chemistry can use an indecent number of integrals, i can't cope with more than 2. i've seen stats with 4, i'll stick to baby statistics thank you very much.

@AbbeyLee as well as unsolved problems, there are problems that are formally undecideable. that means we have proven that they do not have a solution. turing's halting problem is an example of this, it asks whether you can make a computer program to determine whether a given program and input will stop running or run forever.

and, there are problems that are independent of the axiomatic systems they are formulated in. for example the continuum hypothesis, which asks whether there is an infinity in between countable and uncountable infinity, countable being the size of the set of integers, and uncountable being the size of the set of real numbers, which is provably larger than the set of integers. you can add either the continuum hypothesis or its negation to the standard axioms of set theory and it remains consistent.

i love this stuff, i wish i hadn't destroyed my brain so much that i find it hard to remember/understand any more.
 
We got as far as solving the schrodinger equation for a one electron H2 molecule because it’s fairly simple. Then I recall the symmetry adapted linear combinations of atomic orbitals. Or forming wavefunctions you can operate on. I enjoyed chemistry much and am bitter about my departure from the field other than making spirits. Nothing like my research project.
 
chinup said:
physics is the only science!
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My dad always said this!! I only got to Year 11 Physics (16yo or so) and Year 12 Chemistry (17yo). I did Business (Marketing) at university so the only maths I did there was statistics. I wouldn't have minded doing Pharmacy, but would've ruined my career within about a year lol.

I think I'll go play Quordle. I've solved Wordle already (in 3 goes, which is pretty good). Quordle is 4 words in 9 guesses.
 
ions said:
We got as far as solving the schrodinger equation for a one electron H2 molecule because it’s fairly simple. Then I recall the symmetry adapted linear combinations of atomic orbitals. Or forming wavefunctions you can operate on. I enjoyed chemistry much and am bitter about my departure from the field other than making spirits. Nothing like my research project.
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honestly not worth going further IMO.

even adding temperature makes it horrible, you have to transform into fourier space. and then master equations urgh no way.

@AbbeyLee the irony is i now work in life sciences, but in bioinformatics, so its direct application of computer science and data analysis. i rotted my brain with drugs too much to do physics properly, i scraped a phd then left and don't regret it. i have more respect for biology now but am still surprised how vague everything is that they get such good results.

quordle is mint, you should try octordle as well if you haven't, i don't always get it though you have to be much more careful about wasting guesses. worlde took me 4 guesses today. i love puzzles like that!
 
chinup said:
honestly not worth going further IMO.

even adding temperature makes it horrible, you have to transform into fourier space. and then master equations urgh no way.

@AbbeyLee the irony is i now work in life sciences, but in bioinformatics, so its direct application of computer science and data analysis. i rotted my brain with drugs too much to do physics properly, i scraped a phd then left and don't regret it. i have more respect for biology now but am still surprised how vague everything is that they get such good results.

quordle is mint, you should try octordle as well if you haven't, i don't always get it though you have to be much more careful about wasting guesses. worlde took me 4 guesses today. i love puzzles like that!
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I tried Octordle after one of my Scrabble opponents said he preferred that. Well I had no idea what I was doing. I got 4 but didn't try another. Then someone else said his mum plays Quordle so I checked that out and the way it's laid out made it easier to understand than Octordle. I've got 2 words so far tonight but the other 2 are annoying me.

The science vs rotted brain thing reminds me of my brother. He liked opiates and used to say things like "I'm not one of those people who hang around the train station in a tracksuit.. I'm not a junkie.. I'm a funky drug scientist!" 😂
 
the wall mounted pencil sharpener was pretty cool

oh yeah
and I used to do drawerings of pot plants on the hot chics notebooks whos desk was in front of me in calculus
 
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twiddle-dee-and-twiddle-dum-thats-logic.gif


Good read. I'm not sure why my related gif is now gone.

The hidden math behind Alice in Wonderland

www.maa.org

thanks for adding context. -mal
 
AbbeyLee said:
I tried Octordle after one of my Scrabble opponents said he preferred that. Well I had no idea what I was doing. I got 4 but didn't try another. Then someone else said his mum plays Quordle so I checked that out and the way it's laid out made it easier to understand than Octordle. I've got 2 words so far tonight but the other 2 are annoying me.
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hope you got the other two.

i found octordle super confusing at the start too, i didn't realse i could scroll down for a bit which didn't help matters lol. it is harder but still fun.
AbbeyLee said:
The science vs rotted brain thing reminds me of my brother. He liked opiates and used to say things like "I'm not one of those people who hang around the train station in a tracksuit.. I'm not a junkie.. I'm a funky drug scientist!" 😂
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ahhh yeah i used to be like that then lost my sanity, then my job, and became a pretty stereotypical junkie. clean now thank fuck. i hope your brother doesn't go the way i did.
 
AbbeyLee said:
I googled it and I really don't think I know what I'm talking about lol. But I did read about maths problems that haven't been solved.

"Many mathematical problems have not yet been solved. These unsolved problems occur in multiple domains, including theoretical physics, computer science, algebra, analysis, combinatorics, algebraic, differential, discrete and Euclidean geometries, graph, group, model, number, set and Ramseytheories, dynamical systems, and partial differential equations. Some problems may belong to more than one discipline of mathematics and be studied using techniques from different areas." (Wikipedia)


Amazing stuff. I think I'll stick to words, but respect to people who are able to think this way.
Click to expand...

How an Anonymous 4chan Post Helped Solve a 25-Year-Old Math Puzzle​


www.wired.com

How a 4chan Post Helped Solve a 25-Year-Old Math Puzzle

A debate over the most efficient way to watch a cult classic TV series' episodes, in every possible order, lies at the heart of this mathematical breakthrough.
www.wired.com www.wired.com
 
chinup said:
hope you got the other two.

i found octordle super confusing at the start too, i didn't realse i could scroll down for a bit which didn't help matters lol. it is harder but still fun.

ahhh yeah i used to be like that then lost my sanity, then my job, and became a pretty stereotypical junkie. clean now thank fuck. i hope your brother doesn't go the way i did.
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I did. It's a great feeling :) I'll give Octordle a go in a while.

Nope, my brother hasn't gone that way. He, uhhh, died in 2014 aged 33. Heroin overdose down the beach one night. It's fucked but what a way to go. He died for the Funky Drug Scientist cause I guess you could say.
 
AbbeyLee said:
I did. It's a great feeling :) I'll give Octordle a go in a while.

Nope, my brother hasn't gone that way. He, uhhh, died in 2014 aged 33. Heroin overdose down the beach one night. It's fucked but what a way to go. He died for the Funky Drug Scientist cause I guess you could say.
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i'm so sorry to hear that. that is awful. i hope time has made it less raw for you.
 
Linear algebra for me. It obviously is fundamental to many other areas of mathematics but it has a certain beauty in its own right

Everything feels very “natural” as you progress through it. Like each topic flows very naturally from the previous one, if that makes sense

And going back to the applications, many other fields can be reduced to linear algebra in a sense. PDEs is probably the most obvious one. But that’s just an application in another field of math

In the natural sciences there is obviously plenty of uses for it. PDEs are again an obvious example, but even just scientific computations more broadly use linear algebra a lot of the time

Cool stuff all around
 
AbbeyLee said:
Yeah I don't have the attitude OR the skill for chess. Scrabble just comes naturally and there is an element of luck. Do you play much? Have you seen The Queen's Gambit?

I do love the symbology of chess, especially how the Queen can move all around the board while the King can only move one square at a time. I'm interested in the origins of the game.


@Ryanne Also, Good Will Hunting. I haven't seen it in ages so I might be making this up :) but the maths he was doing is a certain kind.. I can't even explain it but it's the highest level of maths. One of my dad's friends did that at university I think.
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I do actually play lots of chess with one of my patients, sometimes with friends at home.
Thing is the strategy you use counts a lot, I play a pretty pawn-heavy game, and it just overburdens newcomers to the game,
but for veterans it's rather easy to deal with.

I don't think anyone doesn't "have the skill for chess", it's most definitely learnable by anyone,
but it does take lots of time. Nobody was born good at chess.

there's a 'proverb' among musicians "you need to put 10,000 hours of work into the instrument before you're ever any good"
I believe that is true for most things.

I have seen the series, was decent.
 
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