An average of 18 attacks on Jews in Europe since September 11

[Ecthy]

*makes it 19*

[KrazyHorse]

Complex anal. is general math tool. Good for everything (for instance, contour integrals). Basically you can step back and forth between real problems and easier problems incomplex plane...

Algebra is useless, sort of. (At least for application to anything testable...) Part of alg. is group theory (alg. 3 was spent on that) but there's also study of rings and fields (alg. 4) then whole bunch of stuff you can go on and study (different constructs. Rings and fields have two operations, groups have one) Real numbers are a field... Complex are too. Sort of useful in more esoteric stuff (need it for understanding of geo/top beyond a certain point) and geo/top has a lot of stuff to say about underlying structure of GR...

[KrazyHorse]

My Geo Top teacher was actually a mathematical physicist who supposedly had a bit of a name for himself. He was demonstrating solubility of different problems in QFT, and using some stuff you needed all the esoteric math for...

[Ramo]

Do physicists here take all that stuff?

Over here, physics majors don't have to take anything in the second part besides vector calc and complex analysis. Also, probability.

[TCO]

So I'm not missing anything with the algebra. How important is the complex analysis?

[KrazyHorse]

Prob. should be picked up on your own. We never got formal intro to stats or prob. They just sort of had us muddle through. Same with computers. Had to do some programming, and I'm useless on the damn things...

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by GP
So I'm not missing anything with the algebra. How important is the complex analysis?

It can be important. It's basically the last trick I pull out of the bag when trying to solve something analytically. Beyond that, there's numeric solutions...

[TCO]

Originally posted by Eli
GP, KrazyHorse :

The next thread you open will be targeted by the ZOG.

Read my thread on locking by originators in Community. I don't think that originators "own" their threads.

[TCO]

Actually a formal class in stats would be quite useful. You could probably skip elementary probs and stats. But you should take a class in Design of Equations. You learn more than just some higher power stats, you learn some problem solving approaches for complex, multivariable issues in the real world. Very powerful actually.

[TCO]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


It can be important. It's basically the last trick I pull out of the bag when trying to solve something analytically. Beyond that, there's numeric solutions...

Is there a field where you need it? The way you need first and second semester calc for mechanics. Or the way you need imaginary numbers for electronics?

[TCO]

And actually more powerful rpogramming classes would be useful. Especially for a theorist. (According to my MS physics friend.)

[KrazyHorse]

Good in stat. mech (and quantum sometimes). You add in the right conjugate imaginary function and end up with a nice harmonic thing...which places all sorts of tools at your disposal, cuz then there are a lot of requirements that have been placed on it. One simple example off top of my head is boltzmann law for radiation...

[TCO]

There is some other math thingie that I'm trying to remember. Some wierd functions or something that we got when using Maple to solve for a theoretical phase diagram of two metals. They did this wired stuff with spiraling in. and Maple could follow it in and go out the other side.

I'm not explaining it very well...

[KrazyHorse]

Nope.

[KrazyHorse]

Maple's a Canadian invention, IIRC.