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Practical applications of higher math - Calculus 3 was my first grade non-A in college. I know my limitations.
1) Modern Composties and their use in aviation - without higher math much of the modeling that permits their use, and the failure parameters involved, simply would not be possible. Composites are critical to today's modern aircraft.
2) F16 and post aircraft are dynamically unstable - again higher maths required to write the control routines, or at least develop them, in a useful way that let's you fly combat maneuvers.
3) Modern shaped charged explosives. The vastly increased lethality of shaped charges is directly attributalbe to higher math, and computers to run them on.
4) Protein folding - we are only beginning to understand it. Where higher math, programming, and supercomputing meet with a vengeance. If you don't think protein folding is important - Alzheimers is essentially a disease of protein folding. Nuff said.
5) Modern reactors. The Japanes have some nice breeder reactors. Successfully arranging the core for optimal yields of fissionables requires - you guessed it - higher maths.
6) Small light thermonuclear warheads. Higher math. Period. Can anybody say MIRV?
7) Modern urban traffic control. Some groundbreaking work is being done in that area, with some fascinating theoretical work leading the way. The predictive tools are - bingo, higher math.
Mathematics is one way to describe the universe, and as you deal with increasingly complex systems, math is the only way to describe it. You can do science without math - but the cutting edge today often has it as a prerequisite.
1) Modern Composties and their use in aviation - without higher math much of the modeling that permits their use, and the failure parameters involved, simply would not be possible. Composites are critical to today's modern aircraft.
2) F16 and post aircraft are dynamically unstable - again higher maths required to write the control routines, or at least develop them, in a useful way that let's you fly combat maneuvers.
3) Modern shaped charged explosives. The vastly increased lethality of shaped charges is directly attributalbe to higher math, and computers to run them on.
4) Protein folding - we are only beginning to understand it. Where higher math, programming, and supercomputing meet with a vengeance. If you don't think protein folding is important - Alzheimers is essentially a disease of protein folding. Nuff said.
5) Modern reactors. The Japanes have some nice breeder reactors. Successfully arranging the core for optimal yields of fissionables requires - you guessed it - higher maths.
6) Small light thermonuclear warheads. Higher math. Period. Can anybody say MIRV?
7) Modern urban traffic control. Some groundbreaking work is being done in that area, with some fascinating theoretical work leading the way. The predictive tools are - bingo, higher math.
Mathematics is one way to describe the universe, and as you deal with increasingly complex systems, math is the only way to describe it. You can do science without math - but the cutting edge today often has it as a prerequisite.
Now I'll grant you that some of that math is not integral to modern science, but there is a world between that and DiffE that shapes virtually everything we do today.
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