<p>What is the difference between these two types of math? I know applied math is used for engineering and computer science. But how are they different? Which would be useful to a particle physicist and an astrophysicist? Which would be helpful to a theoretical physicist and an experimental physicist? How is a theoretical physicist different from an experimental physicist?</p>
<p>I’d imagine Pure would be theoretical, while Applied would be just that, applied. One would likely rely more on proof-based courses, and the other would be more computational. Not sure too much about your physics questions, but I would think the descriptions on the college’s website would help you most.</p>
<p>Just as a guess, I would think theoretical would be focused on theory and discovery of new theories, whereas experimental would be more along the lines of confirming theory and supporting the theorists in that aspect.</p>
<p>All-in-all I would take that with a grain of salt, as I’m not 100% sure, but as I said before, I would check the school’s site. I’m sure they have descriptions of the different branches of the majors.</p>
<p>Applied math would probably be more useful for computational physics, but pen and paper theoretical physics would probably require a lot of pure math.</p>