- #1
Brad Barker
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Hi, I'm a physics/math double major at the university of florida. the degree requirements for a math major changed for the next year, and i plan on following the new track, as it is more flexible.
previously, math majors were required to take STA4321 "math stats 1." now it and math stats 2 are simply electives. however, the math department suggests that for people who plan on going into a career in applied mathematics should take math stats 2 (thereby implying that they should also take math stats 1, as it is a prereq.)
here are the course descriptions:
STA 4321 Intro. to Probability (Fall, Spring, Summer)
Credits: 3 Prereq: MAC 2313 or equivalent.
Introduction to the theory of probability, counting rules, conditional probability, independence, additive and multipicative laws, Bayes Rule. Discrete and continuous random variables, their distributions, moments, moment generating functions. Multivariate probability distributions, independence, covariance. Distributions of functions of random variables. (M)
STA 4322 Intro. Statistics Theory (Fall, Spring, Summer)
Credits: 3 Prereq: STA 4321 or equivalent.
Sampling distributions, central limit theorem, estimation, properties of point estimators, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, common large sample tests, normal theory small sample tests, uniformly most powerful and likelihood ratio tests, linear models and least squares, correlation. Introduction to analysis of variance. (M)
it's pretty clear to me that it would be useful for experimental physics. but i am nearly dead-set on going into mathematical/theoretical physics.
how useful would these courses be for theoretical physics, especially as compared to diff eq 2 (series solutions of ODE's, systems of equations, stability of solutions) and partial differential equations, which i would rather take?
thank you.
previously, math majors were required to take STA4321 "math stats 1." now it and math stats 2 are simply electives. however, the math department suggests that for people who plan on going into a career in applied mathematics should take math stats 2 (thereby implying that they should also take math stats 1, as it is a prereq.)
here are the course descriptions:
STA 4321 Intro. to Probability (Fall, Spring, Summer)
Credits: 3 Prereq: MAC 2313 or equivalent.
Introduction to the theory of probability, counting rules, conditional probability, independence, additive and multipicative laws, Bayes Rule. Discrete and continuous random variables, their distributions, moments, moment generating functions. Multivariate probability distributions, independence, covariance. Distributions of functions of random variables. (M)
STA 4322 Intro. Statistics Theory (Fall, Spring, Summer)
Credits: 3 Prereq: STA 4321 or equivalent.
Sampling distributions, central limit theorem, estimation, properties of point estimators, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, common large sample tests, normal theory small sample tests, uniformly most powerful and likelihood ratio tests, linear models and least squares, correlation. Introduction to analysis of variance. (M)
it's pretty clear to me that it would be useful for experimental physics. but i am nearly dead-set on going into mathematical/theoretical physics.
how useful would these courses be for theoretical physics, especially as compared to diff eq 2 (series solutions of ODE's, systems of equations, stability of solutions) and partial differential equations, which i would rather take?
thank you.