Calc 3 anyone? P. Chem anyone?

[James3shin]

so im coming up on some serious choices to make as a chemistry major. According to my advisor, really cool guy btw, for people taking P. chem, Calc 3 is a very good tool/assistance in P. chem. any experience on this matter? While he says it is not mandatory, it would be a great help. I am proficient in math but I just don't like it. I got aces in both calc 1 and 2, and thought I was done with math sans a trivial stat class. I hear calc 3 can be pretty brutal but my advisor is saying calc 2 is more demanding. I just don't know any input would help.

 

[MrDudeMan]

hmm calc 2 and 3 dont have much in common just FYI. im not sure how calc 3 could help in chemistry, but i havent taken advanced chem classes yet.

 

[royaldank]

Calc 3 when I was in school was pretty much 3-D figures and finding areas between 3-D functions. I wasn't a big fan of it, but it's not all that difficult.

 

[James3shin]

how was calc 3 bigsmooth? Im assuming you took the course already.

 

[blipblop]

calc 3 is just another dimension.. i think calc 2 was a lot more demanding than calc 3. multivariable means that there are just x, y, z, terms you have to find the derivatives of, partial derivatives, i personally think calc 3 was easier than calc 2...

took calc 3 last fall, [studying electrical engineering.]

 

[rocadelpunk]

i dunno how calc 3 would help...

other than maybe divergence/curl stuff..


maybe optimization..

i'd try and talk with some chem majors/professors see what they say.


and I've personally found calc 3 to be much easier than calc 2. I had a bad teacher though.

 

[James3shin]

hmm...i am interested/intrigued by 3d figures and math, it also seems to be not as difficult as calc 2 judging by the responses here. I think I will ask around more about calc 3. hell if i go up to calc 3, i guess I should also double as a mech engineer.

 

[MrDudeMan]

i thought calc 2 was easy as pie except for series. for some reason i never could grasp that concept...

calc 3 is mostly easy to understand. there are a few difficult concepts, but nothing too bad overall.

 

[James3shin]

oh oh...to any of the above or anyone for that mattter, that took calc 3. Would you say it has more to do with Calc 1 knowledge, or Calc 2 knowledge such as Taylor Series, Convergence...and so on

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: James3shin
oh oh...to any of the above or anyone for that mattter, that took calc 3. Would you say it has more to do with Calc 1 knowledge, or Calc 2 knowledge such as Taylor Series, Convergence...and so on

id say it is more of an extension of calc 1 and a little of calc 2. double and triple integrals, partial derivatives, surface area of intersecting 3d shapes, vector fields, line integrals, more optimization, and more vector stuff. there is a little more to it, but thats most of the class. some of the change of system conversions are a little annoying and you need to be good at grasping concepts because the problems can be completely different for a given section. its really not THAT hard, but its not quite as easy as you may be thinking.

 

[royaldank]

Might want to look into a Math Minor if your school offers such a thing.

 

[BlueWeasel]

[rant]
The setup of my Calculus classes at community college was extremely wierd. Calc1 and Calc2 were 5-hour classes that met every day (M/T/W/Th/F). Calc3 was a typical 3-hour class that met 3 times a week. So in the end, I had a total of 13-hours of Calculus versus the 12-hours (4 x 3-hour classes) I would have taken at senior college.
[/rant]

That being said, I found Calc3 much easier than Calc2 (advanced integration).

 

[James3shin]

interesting...good advice dank about the math minor as well.

 

[PizzaDude]

calc 3 is harder than calc 2, by far. Calc 2 is mainly integration while in Calc 3 you need to remember all the integration techniques in 3 dimensions. But anyways, it's doable. However, if you don't need it it's kind of a headache.

 

[Jmman]

From my experience and everyone else I have talked to, Calc 3 is much easier than Calc 2. I would have to agree with your advisor. That being said, P Chem is a biatch......

 

[James3shin]

how would you rate p. chem, say against orgo, Jmman?

 

[LordMorpheus]

calc 3 isn't anything to be worried about if you did well in calc 1 & 2.

They just introduce multidimensional problems. Its a pain, but all it boils down to doing is reducing integrals to normal single variable solvable ones. It can be fairly interesting, actually.

don't know about physical chemistry, I'm an engineering major.

 

[Jmman]

Harder...sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

[CycloWizard]

Calc 3 is vector calculus. It will be easier than Calc 2 if you're inclined to think of things spatially rather than mathematically.

I don't see how Calc 3 will really help with P Chem, and I've taken both.

P Chem is totally different from O Chem. P is a lot of equations, whereas O is a lot of memorization - totally isolated subjects in the classroom. Again, which is easier depends on how you are inclined to think. If you're good at memorization, O is probably easier for you. Good at math - P is probably easier. I did a lot better in P than O because I hate memorization but am good at math.

 

[habib89]

calc 3 was, in my opinion the easiest one after taking all three... of course the first one is hard cause it's new stuff.. the second is hard cause it's all integrals and series and sh!t... calc 3 was just calc 2 and calc 1 in 3d... and since you already know everything, it's way easy

 

[Ausm]

I took P.Chem and Calc3 about 20 years ago but I would recommend Physics instead of Calc 3 for P.Chem.


Ausm

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Calc 3 is vector calculus. It will be easier than Calc 2 if you're inclined to think of things spatially rather than mathematically.

I don't see how Calc 3 will really help with P Chem, and I've taken both.

P Chem is totally different from O Chem. P is a lot of equations, whereas O is a lot of memorization - totally isolated subjects in the classroom. Again, which is easier depends on how you are inclined to think. If you're good at memorization, O is probably easier for you. Good at math - P is probably easier. I did a lot better in P than O because I hate memorization but am good at math.

Organic Chemistry is alot easier to understand then P.Chem. or at least it was for me.


Ausm

 

[TuxDave]

Calc 1,2,3 is cake
Ordinary differential equations is cake
Beyond that... is not cake

 

[James3shin]

Thanks for all the info and input folks. Im sort of leaning towards taking Calc 3 now.

 

[sniperruff]

cal 3 was a walk in the park for me while i struggled in cal 2. cal 3 is like cal 2, with one more variable in it. easy.