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Jin314159
A friend of mine got into a heated debate on which one of these disciplines is harder. What do you guys think?
Gokul43201 said:Perhaps you should ask Math is Hard !
Jin314159 said:In physics, it seems like people make up stuff as they go along. For example, the whole concept of a quantum tunnel seems bogus to me.
Gokul43201 said:I got my Undergrad Degree in Engineering. I'm doing my PhD. in Physics. And I spend my spare time learning Math.
LOSER ?
Math Is Hard said:ha ha ha! It's funny because I used to be frightened of math and science courses because I was so worried my calculations would be off the mark. Now what scares me more are the humanities classes because the grading can be very subjective, and sometimes it all boils down to how much your conclusions agree with the teacher's opinions. With math and science, you either get the right answer or you don't. With humanities and social science, it's more of a gray area.
Chrono said:Wouldn't math be the hardest since physics and engineering both depend on it?
Moonbear said:Interesting. I was thinking of it the other way around. Math would be the easiest, because it's just math. Physics and engineering require knowing how to actually use that math for something else. Engineering requires using physics and math, and people's lives hang in the balance, sometimes literally, if the engineers make a calculation mistake.
Moonbear said:Interesting. I was thinking of it the other way around. Math would be the easiest, because it's just math. Physics and engineering require knowing how to actually use that math for something else. Engineering requires using physics and math, and people's lives hang in the balance, sometimes literally, if the engineers make a calculation mistake.
I used to make a similar argument about physics, chemistry and biology. I always said biology is the hardest. See, the physics majors just had to learn physics. The chemistry majors had to learn physics and chemistry. The biology majors were required to learn physics, chemistry and biology. So, by that reasoning, I thought biology must be the hardest
loseyourname said:I think one thing you are overlooking here is that mathematicians learn a lot more math, and more advanced and complicated math, than do the physicists and engineers. By the same token, physicists learn more physics than chemists, and chemists learn more chemistry than biologists. I still agree that biology is the hardest, though. There's just so much frickin' fact memorization. Don't get me wrong. I think it's terribly interesting, but I'm just not good at learning that way. All you need is a pen and paper and you can practice math and physics, even chemistry. You can't do that with much biology outside of bioinformatics. Probably why I loved studying genetics, and especially population genetics, so much.
The Bob said:They are all just has easy and as hard as each other. I find physics and maths hard but have never done engineering. It also depensd on the person. This thread is completely option-based so is going to go in circles a lot.
The Bob (2004 ©)
ElectroPhysics said:Engineering is easy due to its practical nature.
balkan said:what is the definition of an engineer in your country? (asking because I'm interested... there seems to be a great difference compared to here...)
Jin314159 said:A friend of mine got into a heated debate on which one of these disciplines is harder. What do you guys think?
Math Is Hard said:ha ha ha! It's funny because I used to be frightened of math and science courses because I was so worried my calculations would be off the mark. Now what scares me more are the humanities classes because the grading can be very subjective, and sometimes it all boils down to how much your conclusions agree with the teacher's opinions. With math and science, you either get the right answer or you don't. With humanities and social science, it's more of a gray area.
BobG said:The best route is to always support the opposite side in the papers you write. You can see the weaknesses in your opponents' assumptions easier than you can see the weaknesses in your own and are less likely to base your arguments on weak assumptions.
(Assuming, of course, that your goal is to get a good grade vs. change the world)
Tom Mattson said:I think that pure mathematics is the hardest, hands down. A lot of people who say "Aw, math is easy!" probably never took a "real" math course. By that I mean that they probably never went beyond the calculus/linear algebra/diff eq sequence required of engineering majors. Once you get away from those grind-out-the-calculations courses, you get into the real meat of the issue: proving theorems.