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What branch of Mathematics did you find most difficult?

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Discrete Math. DM-1 I didn't do too bad in - ended up with a B. DM2 I ended up dropping b/c I had no frickin' clue what the hell was going on. Calc, Algebra, Trig, Geometry all came natural to me.
 
I vote for PDEs and, more generally, BVPs. If you don't know what those are, just be happy that you don't.


(PDE = Partial differential equations, BVP = Boundary Value Problems)

*edit* I haven't taken any analysis but I hear it's a huge pain in the ass as well
 
Originally posted by: jbahseng
complex variables
Click to expand...

generally Complex Vars are not that bad until your prof goes nuts with the PDEs and BVPs involving complex variables. Just remember, residues are your friend 😀:beer:
 
Chaos theory

The only class I ever dropped. I was lost from day one. It was a graduate course I took for fun my junior year.

I graduated with a degree in Mathematics but that class blew me away.
 
Calc1 was really easy. I slept and i got an A-. Calc2 is a little harder, but it takes getting used too. The most challenging thing in clac 2 is using the shell method and finding center mass and moments of inertia (Physics actually mad ethat stuff easier cause there was no deriving) I luckily ended up with a B+ even thpough i still cant do the application stuff. Calc3 is a ok, right now i am just doing differential equations, which is not hard, but it takes practice, however, in the coming week, i start infinite series, and that definately looks challenging.

BTW, Algebra was a breeze after the pre algebra class. It is the same concept over and over again. Goign down more years, I remember that i sucked in math. I rememeber in teh thrid grade when my tecaher asked how i got teh answer, i just responded "it says so in the book"
 
i hated geometry because of the proofs, but it was an easy course.

i think my hardest class was taking high school albegra in jr. high. the teacher couldn't teach and that made it horrible.

the other maths are pretty easy. esp. calculus
 
Calculus OWNED me hardcore like no other class(es) ever had.

Funny thing is, I haven't used it since school and i've probably forgotten most of it. 😱
 
PSTAT - No, not the easy classes that Econ majors take, the real Upper Division PSTAT. Where you had to calculate things like:
If you had 29 students in a classroom, what is the probability that at least 2 of them will have the same birthday? Then you find out its over 70% if you did the math right.

Killer class.

Edit: A quick search on the Internet and I found a Link.
 
Calc and Trig bow to Discrete Math. All I have to say is proof by induction. But, everything bows to Differential Equations especially those of the partial kind.
 
Originally posted by: cheapbidder01
PSTAT - No, not the easy classes that Econ majors take, the real Upper Division PSTAT. Where you had to calculate things like:
If you had 29 students in a classroom, what is the probability that at least 2 of them will have the same birthday? Then you find out its over 95% if you did the math right.

Killer class.
Click to expand...

i enjoyed Prob and Stats, but hated calculus
 
Originally posted by: cheapbidder01
PSTAT - No, not the easy classes that Econ majors take, the real Upper Division PSTAT. Where you had to calculate things like:
If you had 29 students in a classroom, what is the probability that at least 2 of them will have the same birthday? Then you find out its over 70% if you did the math right.

Killer class.

Edit: A quick search on the Internet and I found a Link.
Click to expand...

That is not hard to do. My second computer science class I took proved that one day.
 
linear algebra != algebra

discrete math is the hardest... followed by calculus, trig, algebra, geometry.
 
Originally posted by: Spencer278
Originally posted by: cheapbidder01
PSTAT - No, not the easy classes that Econ majors take, the real Upper Division PSTAT. Where you had to calculate things like:
If you had 29 students in a classroom, what is the probability that at least 2 of them will have the same birthday? Then you find out its over 70% if you did the math right.

Killer class.

Edit: A quick search on the Internet and I found a Link.
Click to expand...

That is not hard to do. My second computer science class I took proved that one day.
Click to expand...

yea that's what i love about computer science.... teaches you how to do all those little puzzlers
 
Actually, Alg 1 was hard for me. I needed Alg 2 to reinforce a lot of that. Then Alg 2 was hard, and I reinforced a lot of the stuff in Calc class. Finally Calc 3 isn't too hard right now.

Hard topics: Trig proofs, ick! Only one I really know is sin^2 x + cos^2 x = 1 😛 Calc with trig stuff aside from deriving sin and cos is still hard.
Logs and natural logs sucked really badly for me, until I took some time and figured out the dumb stuff like ln = log base e.
Calc 2/C was really bad. I blew at polar and parametrics and areas of surfaces of rotation and volumes of rotation etc.

<--highest math is Calc 3/D. We did Green's Theorem today. Looking good 🙂
 
So far the highest level math I've taken is Calc I (Adv Plancment AB), and it's been a cake walk. I haven't cracked open my book out of class more than four or five times all year, and if I do well on my final few tests, I should end up with a 90+ final average. If I actually cared at all about the class, then I could easily pull a 95 average for the year. I'd put money though that things will change next year when I start engineering.
 
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