Overloading classes outside the major sheet

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the decision to take a mathematics class titled "Foundation of Mathematics" outside of an engineering major. Participants explore the relevance, difficulty, and potential benefits of such a course, particularly in relation to engineering and other STEM fields.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express concern that the course may not be directly applicable to engineering, citing its focus on sets, proofs, and abstract concepts.
  • One participant suggests that Boolean algebra could be useful for analog and digital circuits, although they caution against expecting practical applications from a pure math course.
  • Another participant mentions that discrete mathematics is often required for computer science and electrical engineering majors, indicating some relevance to those fields.
  • A participant shares a personal experience of finding discrete math challenging but acknowledges its theoretical background as beneficial for digital logic studies.
  • Some participants argue that taking classes outside one's major can be valuable for personal growth and learning, even if the material seems irrelevant to future job prospects.
  • One participant, identifying as a mathematician, advises against taking the course unless the student has a specific interest in set theory, suggesting it may not provide practical engineering skills.
  • Another participant notes that the course may differ from typical discrete mathematics courses, which often include graph theory and combinatorics.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally do not reach a consensus on the value of taking the course. While some see potential benefits, others argue it may not be useful for engineering applications. Multiple competing views remain regarding the relevance and difficulty of the course.

Contextual Notes

Participants express varying assumptions about the applicability of the course content to engineering and other STEM fields, highlighting the potential disconnect between theoretical mathematics and practical engineering skills.

madah12
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I am surprised that I don't see topics like this but anyway, I am thinking of taking math classes outside my engineering major sheet which is called foundation of mathematics it deals with sets and proofs described :"Algebra of propositions, mathematical induction, operations on sets, binary relations, equivalence relations and partitions, denumerable sets, Cardinal numbers, partial order. Boolean algebra." but most people advise me against it because it had nothing to do with engineering and is hard and an overload ,so anyone here has a positive advice about how it could be useful or that they took it or it wasn't that hard?
 
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Well Boolean Algebra might be useful for analog/digital circuits.
But I wouldn't take a pure math course wishing to see it applied in engineering, just as I wouldn't take an engineering course in say control theory and wishing to see rigorous math being used in the course.

Set your expectations appropiately.
 
I am planning to take such a class in spring 2011 too. Such a course is usually called "Discrete mathematics" or "Discrete structures" and compulsory to not only math majors, but CS and EE majors.

Sets, lists, boolean algebra and propositional logic are areas of the course that may be directly motivated by your major. I've heard rumours about the toughness of this class at my college too!

(FYI I am an Industrial Engineering major)

Cheers : )
 
ok thanks for the insight I am also majoring in EE (well not technically because in my university you can only specialize after one year but I meant I want to major in EE) anyway do you think it is ok to take classes that you think you will like even though they are useless to your job (ignoring the extra pay) cause I don't know why a lot of people I know want to take exactly as the major sheet and nothing else.
 
I once took a discrete math course. I hated it. Very hard course. That type of math suits some people really well, though.
 
I took a similar class (Discrete Math) as an elective and found it is somewhat relevant to an EE major. It helped provide some theoretical background for the things I studied in Digital Logic (required for my EE major). It is also helpful if you have an interest in computer science or programming.

EDIT:
In response to your question, I think it's ok to take classes outside of your major, as long as you are mastering your required classes. The actual material may end up being "useless in your job" but learning new things is a good habit for an engineer or scientist to have. Not everything you learn is immediately useful.
 
I took a discrete course at my school. It was complusory for EE and CE students. I liked it because it introduced me to proofs which I needed in other math courses I took out of interest.

Discrete is not really useful for EE's unless maybe in an algorithms course where you may have to use induction. However, some people already encounter induction in high school so discreet would not be too useful to them.

As for discreet helping in digital circuit that is true and false. They teach you all you need in digital circuits class , in fact, at my school I took digital logic before discrete.


If you want to take it then do so.
 
I, as a mathematician, would actually advise against such a class. If you're interested in infinite sets and axioms of set theory, then by all means: take the class. I think foundation-theory is very interesting.
But "foundation of mathematics" has nothing to do with engineering. So, if you want something that will help you as an engineer, then this class will be useless to you...
The only useful thing I see is Boolean algebra. But in mathematics, they will probably teach you boolean algebras in a way that has nothing to do with practical applications. So it'll be useless to you.

I have heard a lot of people talk about discrete mathematics. But the course you're describing has nothing to do with discrete mathematics. Discrete mathematics can actually be useful to you. So it probably won't hurt you to take that class. However, discrete mathematics is known to be a very hard class, which I can confirm...

I think it's sad that a mathematician advises against a math class. But I just don't see how it will be useful to you... at all...
 
Hmm, the "Discrete Structures" course at my school has some stuff on induction, sets and relations, but the bulk of the course is graph theory (and combinatorics). The class is a requirement for CS but not for Math majors.

Looking at the OP's course description and title I would guess that it's closer to a combination of Mathematical Logic and Set Theory, which is probably going to have much more of a pure math focus.

But maybe other discrete courses are different.
 

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