Recent content by DrSuage

Hi - welcome to differential geometry! A key feature of manifolds is that transition functions in the overlaps between coordinate patches need to be smooth. This can be achieved with R2 by considering to sets of spherical polar coordinates where the origin of the second set is offset by some...

Hi - yes you are along the right lines. Just remember that anything contracted over all the indices of epsilon will be a singlet because of the determinant condition on SU(n) groups... and that all tensors can be decomposed into a symmetric and an antisymmetric part...(without giving away the...

Hello IahWay! I'm starting a PhD in Theoretical Cosmology and Relativity this September, so I can give you a little perspective on what applying for Theory is like. Those courses all look very worthwhile to someone wanting to continue in theory, however I would be concerned about the lack of...

Does one not cover single variable single differential calculus at high school? 45 hours of lectures on just trig at college level? I'd probably shoot myself!

In the UK a whole lecture course is usually 24 lectures. This seems excessive for solely trigonometry. Is the US streaming system different? I am always terribly confused when everyone goes about "Calculus 1" or "Calculus 3" - is there some sort of national standard, such that one's third...

I second the notion of taking linear algebra as soon as possible. Its basically the most important thing ever.

I think memorising all such identities is a waste of time to be honest. No professional mathematician would do such a thing when they could simply look them up and check the proofs when they needed to employ them (which would be rarely). When I first saw trigonometric substitution for solving...

Forgive me, I don't know how the american system works, but a whole lecture course on Trigonometry seems somewhat excessive? We just kind of picked it up as we went along... I mean what is there really to know beyond the definitions of sin cos tan & reciprocals, some identities?

If you enjoy math you'll be fine. To be honest I constantly find myself having to check basic things and I'm doing a masters in Particle Theory. The main thing is to enjoy it - if you do you'll be motivated to practice. Math is a bit like playing a musical instrument - its not a collection of...

A little off topic but... I never understood isospin at all until I had a proper understanding of representations of Lie Groups - after that it was very easy! I would strongly recommend first learning the basics of representations for SU(2) and SU(3), all will become clear to you. If you learn...

Causal Set Theory alert... CST is so left field but its really interesting. Have you guys looked into it at all? Incidentally looks like Stephen Wolfram is playing with something quite similar (though I don't really know how good a physicist he is)...

of course high school counts! Its about how relatively hard it was for you at the time.

What was it? What was the context? I'd say mine was the Lie Theory and Particle Physics paper I sat today. Universal consensus was that most people felt they'd be lucky to get over 50%. I reckon I did maybe mid 60's, which doesn't seem to be that bad relative to what other people are saying...

I find I struggle to focus and concentrate during the day, but come the night I can work solidly without losing concentration.

His little schpiel about General Relativity allowing faster than light travel is absolute hokum. Special Relativity is not wrong in the way that Newtonian mechanics is not wrong. They are just approximate theories - effective only within their domain of application.