Which do you prefer: pure mathematics or applied mathematics?

[murshid_islam]

hi, a poll has been going on about our favourite fields in mathematics. i decided to run a poll on broader topics, namely, pure mathematics and applied mathematics. which one do you guys prefer?

 

[roger]

Which one do you prefer and why ?

 

[murshid_islam]

i prefer pure mathematics. i think its much more elegant and beautiful than applied mathematics. my feelings towards mathematics is a bit like that of Hardy's.

 

[Office_Shredder]

I prefer math to physics personally

 

[desA]

I voted Applied Mathematics because the solutions are useful to me as a Physicist...

 

[elabed haidar]

physics is logic and real while math is just abstractits ture that physics needs math to solve a problem but life is physics

 

[micromass]

Although I am a pure mathematician, I have voted "both of them". I think both pure and applied mathematics have their inherent beauty. Pure mathematics is like a form of art, it's existence is justified by itself. While the beauty of applied mathematics lies in it's power to solve real problems.

 

[camilus]

^nice analysis. But things like the prime number spiral are the domain of pure math, so that is where my vote went.

 

[Integral]

IMHO.

Pure math is boring.

Applied math is the world we live in, now that is interesting.

 

[chiro]

I like pure math to some degree, but I really like to see math applied in some sense. Pure math by itself is too much for me to bear.

 

[PhysDrew]

As was mentioned earlier by desA, I voted applied maths as I'm a physicist. Speculative maths has too much rigor and abstraction!

 

[MathAmateur]

physics is logic and real while math is just abstractits ture that physics needs math to solve a problem but life is physics

That is why I like pure math. As far from life and all its messiness as possible.