Subject with the hairiest calculations?

[fourier jr]

some antiderivatives (partial fractions, trig sub, etc) can be nightmares to compute, but I remember series solutions of differential equations being worse, especially if finding the radius of convergence is included. can anyone think of things that are worse to calculate?

 

[thrillhouse86]

Any Asymptotic approximation solutions - especially boundary layer theory problems

 

[lurflurf]

Asymptodic approximation is (or was befor cas) a good canidate as Newton told Machin that "his head never ached but with his studies on the moon.". Topology has horrible calculations.

 

[fourier jr]

i can imagine that... looks like to get an asymptotic expansion you usually integrate by parts over & over.