Mathematician or Physicist: Who is More Valued and Why?

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Hello;

Let's assume that I were looking for someone academic and intelligent -- and along came a mathematician and a physicist, and I'd have to choose between the two. Which is valued more, and why?

I ask this because we get problems in mathematics that are very textbook-related, and we are asked to solve problems using mathematical models every once in a while. Whereas problems in physics seem to require much more thought, to be honest. I have also always been in awe of how much a physics teacher knows compared to a mathematics teacher -- why is this? I ask this because pretty much every one of my peers agrees.

So which is better -- a mathematician, or a physicist?

Thanks.

 

[Dembadon]

Which is better? Neither.

Looking for someone intelligent? Either.

Which is more valued? Depends.

Does that help?

 

[Klockan3]

It depends on what you value. Also at what level are you? Matters a lot.

 

[twofish-quant]

Let's assume that I were looking for someone academic and intelligent -- and along came a mathematician and a physicist, and I'd have to choose between the two. Which is valued more, and why?

Looking for what?

If you are hiring people then you want to hire the person you don't have already. If you have a physicist on the team, then you hire the mathematician. If you already have a mathematician on the team, then you hire the physicist. Also, it may but that what you really need is neither a physicist or mathematician but rather an ex-football coach.

I ask this because we get problems in mathematics that are very textbook-related, and we are asked to solve problems using mathematical models every once in a while. Whereas problems in physics seem to require much more thought, to be honest.

That's because you are reading a textbook. Things are totally different when you are *writing* textbooks. One other thing is that there is also a difference in skill sets between mathematicians and mathematics teachers. Also one thing that I've found is that really, really good mathematics teachers sometimes seem a lot less brilliant than they really are. The reason for this is that if you have a really, really good mathematics teacher, what they talk about seems totally trivially obvious, which means them see less intelligent.

I had a brilliant math teacher that taught set theory, and he made it seem *incredibly* trivial. It seems so easy that you wondered why people even bothered teaching that stuff. Until one day, he had a cold, and his assistant taught the class, and then you realized how brilliant the math teacher was.

 

[Leptos]

I had a brilliant math teacher that taught set theory, and he made it seem *incredibly* trivial. It seems so easy that you wondered why people even bothered teaching that stuff. Until one day, he had a cold, and his assistant taught the class, and then you realized how brilliant the math teacher was.

Just curious, are there any books you'd recommend for self-learning set theory?
I have the book Axiomatic Set Theory by Patrick Suppes, have you come across it by any chance?