Recent content by union68

Differential geometry is a big one for GR, and that's part of the reason I've never attempted to get into it, ha. I don't know a blooming thing about it. Don't be so fixated on one theory though, make sure you check out the other parts of physics along the way!

I was sort of in the same boat, but my situation was slightly different. I have a pretty good GPA and letters of rec., but I am from a very, very small school that I can guarantee nobody has ever heard of. I applied to 9 and, to my surprise, got into 4 (one had the funding yanked by the NSF)...

http://www.cam.cornell.edu/Graduate/Courses/#dynamical" http://www.math.umd.edu/research/dynamics/" http://www.math.psu.edu/dynsys/" http://www.math.sunysb.edu/dynamics/" I am an applied math major, so those are all math programs. I'm strongly considering going into dynamics as...

Oh yeah: For all the young whipper-snappers out there who are unsure of themselves, read this: http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/does-one-have-to-be-a-genius-to-do-maths/" It's written by a Field's Medal-winning mathematician named Terence Tao, a prof at UCLA. Given his...

I agree. Somebody's wall may be college algebra. Another person's may be algebraic topology or some other esoteric field. That's when you find out what you're really made of. I know that for me, I have had a real tough time with upper level physics courses. Stupid Lagrangian mechanics! For...

Ah crap, got it! I should have wrote the sequence out so I could keep my indexing strait. Thanks very much.

Homework Statement Consider the series \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{2^2} + \frac{1}{3^2} + \frac{1}{2^3} + \frac{1}{3^3} + \ldots. He then proceeds to write \lim \textnormal{inf}_{n\to\infty} \frac{a_{n+1}}{a_n} = \lim_{n\to\infty} \left(\frac{2}{3}\right)^n = 0 and...

If we were to slighly rearrange the order in your post: But then, So you sort of gave yourself an example. Those kid-prodigies fully warrant the term "talented." Even a cursory review of their accomplishments will convince you this is so. Again, while nobody is denying the power of...

I don't know if I'd agree with the non-existence of "natural talent." People could work their entire lives and not accomplish what Euler or Gauss did in one year. And then there's the child prodigies... With that being said, I tend to agree with you in a way. I think this whole "talent"...

The transition from computational math to abstract math is a real doozy for the unprepared. If you tough it out and work really hard, it'll pay off. I have a lot of interesting stories about how I arrived in my major. :biggrin: I was booted out of my high school my junior year for various...

I go to an average state school. My first year physics course was cake. However, if you're taking a course on the level of K&K, then I'd image it'd be pretty hard. I'm in a senior level mechanics course (I'm not a physics major). Now that's a course that will inspire a lot of horror stories.

I'll be applying to schools this coming fall, and I'm pretty sure I've got my choices narrowed down to a few. I Googled the **** out of grad schools and research areas. When I found a department that looked like it may suit my interest, I looked at each professor individually. Looked at their...

Well, Spivak's Calculus on Manifolds is the likely suggestion. :biggrin: However, the theory behind calculus in R^n is usually written in differential forms and a bunch of other fancy math. This is how the aforementioned book is, how Munkres' Analysis on Manifolds is, how chapters 9 & 10 in...

I'm in a classical mechanics course right now. Thornton and Marion is required, but I went ahead and bought Taylor's Classical Mechanics as well. I like Taylor's book much better.

...except that quite a few programs do not even require their applied-math majors to take those classes; they are electives. My program requires algebra, but that's typically reserved for the senior year. Assuming that the potential applied-math grad student hadn't studied by themselves prior...