Should I Become a Mathematician?

[mathwonk]

yes.

 

[Shackleford]

yes.

okay.

 

[ephedyn]

... most of which are just lying on my computer in an outdated font and a word processor that isn't even readable by current versions of the same program (guess what famous software company produced this marvel of usefulness), and publish them for profit instead of giving them away. I am told however that publishers pay authors so little that it is hardly worth it. This may be why Mike Spivak publishes his own works.

...Microsoft? I don't know if there's anything I can do to help, but if you're interested, we could work something out and I'm more than willing to help lessen the workload of typesetting it in LaTeX.

For zero credit or profit, of course; I just love the feeling of mathematics flowing off the tips of my fingers in LaTeX, and the learning experience is more than profit. (I remember you had a set of notes on linear algebra which was sweet and even now I try to style my notes in a similar format).

 

[qspeechc]

Aren't there programs available for free from Microsoft which you download and it let's you open your old files on the new program on your computer? My sister downloaded such a program for Microsoft Word. Maybe you should check the website, or e-mail them to find out, or go to one of their shop with the technicians.

 

[mathwonk]

As far as I know there is no fix for this. My technical support professional surfed the web for some time and I also tried all the chat sites and so on that I could find. Apparently microsoft just cut loose all their own old customers.

A second problem I cause myself was using an old special font that is not supported on newer computers.

ephedyn, if you want to try texing my brief linear algebra notes from my webpage, you are welcome to do so. That's less than 15 pages, and might be feasible. I think you would get tired before long though on all that other lengthier stuff. If you do, please add a credit to yourself.

 

[bhuavnxp]

as to those planning a career in math, here is a relevant joke i got from a site provided by astronuc:

Q: What is the difference between a Ph.D. in mathematics and a large pizza?
A: A large pizza can feed a family of four...

ha haha good one :)

 

[bhuavnxp]

i am really interested in lwearning maths..alll i am doing in now studying ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS sruggling with partial differential equations...i am a maths tutor now...teaching students... :)
i love mathematics although i am not to good i it but i love it anyhow :)

 

[QuantumP7]

How do you know if you have a talent for mathematics?

 

[hunt_mat]

Because all your maths grades are higher than you other grades and it's something wihich you look forward to doing. That was my route anyway.

 

[RoughRoad]

I don't know if this is the right thread to ask my query, but anyways...


I am 17, currently in my 12th grade, and I live in Mumbai, India.

Now, my problem is that I really like how mathematics can be used as a tool for explaining the phenomenas nature. I love reading biographies of various physicists and mathematicians, and really get motivated when I ready some quotes by other eminent mathematicians. By doing that, I really get motivated to study maths.
But when I ACTUALLY sit down to solve problems, withing an hour, I get bored. It's not that I don't like the subject, but it's just that I don't have the concentration power to let myself study the subject.

What should I do? Is it that I don't have an amplitude for Maths?
Pls help, and if possible, pls share your childhood experienes while studying this subject, and you gained motivation to solve more and more problems without getting frustated...

 

[muppet]

As regards people minding their own business, you've posted this in a discussion thread that aims to provide people help on how to become mathematicians. If those of us who've actually attained degrees from those universities and their silly courses think that e-mailing some guy to get answers is a lousy way to make progress, that's our contribution to the discussion. If the derision of university courses as "silly" arouses our suspicion as to the author's credentials or common sense, that's also our fair comment to make.

EDIT: This reply appears to be to a post that no longer exists...

 

[muppet]

Mathwonk: I'm intrigued by your post about the cone and the sphere! My initial way of rationalising it was to think about somehow wrapping the base around the apex, but as they have different curvatures I decided that that was a lousy way to think about it. It seems to me that (from a modern perspective, which is the only one I really have) a better way to think about it might be in terms of the symmetry groups- you can rotate a cone into itself around the axis from the apex to the centre of the base, although this doesn't hold for every point on the base the way it does for the sphere...

In any event I'm baffled by how Archimedes could have arrived at such a conclusion (something about sweeping out circles of increasing radii?), but then I'm no Archimedes. I'm really a theoretical physicist anyway, as probably shows.

It was also nice to read that you could spend an afternoon reading a single page of a textbook and struggle with it- I don't know anything about algebraic geometry, but my study of quantum field theory yields similar experiences on a regular basis.

 

[mathwonk]

A cone is a union of straight lines emanating from a point. They end at the base. Since a sphere is a union of lines emanating from the center and ending at the surface of the sphere, it follows that the solid sphere is a cone with vertex at the cnter and base is the surface. grok?

 

[Shackleford]

A cone is a union of straight lines emanating from a point. They end at the base. Since a sphere is a union of lines emanating from the center and ending at the surface of the sphere, it follows that the solid sphere is a cone with vertex at the cnter and base is the surface. grok?

Is the base curved or flat? So, a solid sphere is a rotated cone?

 

[mathwonk]

excellent question. normally of course the base is flat. but recall that differential calculus is the science of approximating curved things by flat ones. so if you approximate the surface of the sphere by small pieces of tangent planes, you will also approximate the volume of the sphere by many volumes of pyramids with flat bases. since the ratio of volume to area of base times radius is 1/3 in all these flat cases, it remains true in the limit. have you had calculus and limits? if so, now you can begin to see how to think in those terms as archimedes did.

 

[Shackleford]

excellent question. normally of course the base is flat. but recall that differential calculus is the science of approximating curved things by flat ones. so if you approximate the surface of the sphere by small pieces of tangent planes, you will also approximate the volume of the sphere by many volumes of pyramids with flat bases. since the ratio of volume to area of base times radius is 1/3 in all these flat cases, it remains true in the limit. have you hD CALCULUS AND LIMITS? if so, now you can begin to see how to think in those terms as archimedes did.

Yes. I've had taken Differential Equations and Vector Analysis. I think this line of thought is pretty interesting. These seem to be the very basic notions that underlie mathematics. I'm beginning to think that I enjoy - as I've seen it called before - the language of and logic behind mathematics. Is that the correct way to look at it?

 

[-IamLittle-]

do i need to get first hornor to be a mathematician?

 

[mathwonk]

This is a long thread about becoming a mathematician, but i recommend going back and reading at last page one of it. There is nothing mentioned anywhere here to my knowledge about getting first honors. Indeed I do not know what they are. Essentially, if you think you are a mathematician, you are making a good start.

 

[muppet]

Grok. Thanks for your reply Mathwonk.

 

[-IamLittle-]

This is a long thread about becoming a mathematician, but i recommend going back and reading at last page one of it. There is nothing mentioned anywhere here to my knowledge about getting first honors. Indeed I do not know what they are. Essentially, if you think you are a mathematician, you are making a good start.

You can get first honor if your gpa in university is A,in my university, if you don't get A, you cannot be a postgraduate. Can i be a mathematician after i leave the university? I am worry about it.

 

[mathwonk]

I see you have read sentence 3 of my answer. Now please read sentences 1,2, and 4. And good luck to you.

 

[mathwonk]

Let me be more specific. I myself made a (D-) in 2nd semester freshman honors calculus (largely from not having adequate study habits, not from having no talent). I was later asked (i.e. required) to leave school for one year to do some maturing, and then re - apply. After doing so, I learned to get reasonable grades, i.e. go to class, do the work, do extra work if need be. But I did not graduate with any kind of honors, neither 1st , 2nd, nor 3rd... But my good performance senior year enabled me to enter a grad program.

But again in graduate school, I at first try only managed to earn a masters degree, again from losing focus. Eventually I found another chance at another school and, after further seasoning in life skills, graduated with a PhD. That was over 30 years ago. So no, life does not end at age 21, nor at the end of undergraduate school, regardless of the current situation. At some point however you must perform.

So it seems that grad school at your present university may be out of the mix, but there may well be other choices, if you can convince someone you can do significant work. But be flexible. Maybe some other work also interests you.

 

[-IamLittle-]

nice sharing! thank you very much

 

[dkotschessaa]

New question:

At my school there are quite a few seminars and colloquia and such that go on during the semester in the math department. (Physics as well). Titles like "Integrable discretizations and soliton solutions of KdV and mKdV equations" and "Making Sense of Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians."

I have to admit I haven't a clue what these are even about, but the question is - should I attend? I'm kind of reflecting on how one can learn a language through a process of immersion and wondering if there is a similar effect in mathematics, so long as I continue to work on the fundamentals in the meantime.

Edited to add: These talks tend to be grad students, professors, etc. So whatever they are talking about I probably won't be doing for another 3 years at least.

-DaveKA

 

[uman]

It might hurt your self-esteem...

 

[dkotschessaa]

It might hurt your self-esteem...

Meaningless concept.

 

[dkotschessaa]

I believe the word is "humbling." That's ok.

 

[uman]

Not at all. If it humbles you so much that you think "I will never be at this level... I should quit math", then harm was done.

On the other hand, if you think you're immune to that, go for it.

 

[mathwonk]

as sylvanus p thompson put it, what one fool can do, another can.

 

[dkotschessaa]

Not at all. If it humbles you so much that you think "I will never be at this level... I should quit math", then harm was done.

On the other hand, if you think you're immune to that, go for it.

Insecure,self defeating attitudes are not at all my style. I would think if anything it would make me want to head back to my study and learn more.

I learn a lot of Spanish from my wife and family especially when we travel. You hear what phrases tend to pop up over and over and what frequency certain words and idioms have. Using the oft heard metaphor of math as a language I would think the process might be similar. I'm just wondering if I'm corrext in applying the metaphor this way or if it might not be a good use of time.

 

[mathwonk]

I think most people recommend this as a good way to learn things you cannot learn any other way.

 

[qspeechc]

New question:

At my school there are quite a few seminars and colloquia and such that go on during the semester in the math department. (Physics as well). Titles like "Integrable discretizations and soliton solutions of KdV and mKdV equations" and "Making Sense of Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians."

These seem to be physics or applied math topics, which I do not think will be of much interest to a math student.

 

[symbolipoint]

dkotschessaa said this:

I learn a lot of Spanish from my wife and family especially when we travel. You hear what phrases tend to pop up over and over and what frequency certain words and idioms have. Using the oft heard metaphor of math as a language I would think the process might be similar. I'm just wondering if I'm corrext in applying the metaphor this way or if it might not be a good use of time.

Acquiring Mathematics is a little bit different than acquiring a human language, but your attempt at the metaphor is at least encouraging if not exactly enthusiatic (which for you it may very well be). I found that physical sciences lecturea AND LABORATORY courses, and especially Fundamental Physics couses forced some acquired skill with Algebra and Trigonometry and some Calculus; and such skill would not have developed as effectively from just the Mathematics courses alone.

With human languages, people can learn to use and understand them if some intelligent person shows them what the words and phrases are and how they work and gives them exercises in using the words and phrases. This stuff can be both formal and informal.

Topics in Mathematics are best taught formally first, and then the student should (and often IS) put into situations to use and THINK in those topics.

 

[dkotschessaa]

Thanks for that input. In addition to my math courses basically my plan (actually its more of a plunge) is to get involved with undergraduate research in the physics and/or math departments, in addition to showing up at lectures. Its a kind of fake it till you make it approach.

Ready, fire, aim!

 

[QuantumP7]

So, for a math PhD, do they look favorably upon physics research experience, or should you just put your math research experience on your application?