What is the hardest majors?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>lol no, I said that because Acere took the idea of Math being a subset of Physics with such disapproval.</p>

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On behalf of math majors, I'm flattered that you take an inability to grasp stupid things as an indication of a math major.

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<p>lol wouldn't that be an insult? If one doesn't have the ability to grasp stupid things, how can they have the ability to grasp more complex things?</p>

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<p>Not to mention Acere here forgot to sign off his post as a "pure math major". Stone is just picking up his slack, is all. :)</p>

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<p>Wow, it was a joke. Lighten up.</p>

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"And plus Physics is Math + other stuff; Math is just math... Therefore Math is a subset of Physics."

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<p>just because physics use alot of math, it doesn't automatically make Math a subset of Physics. </p>

<p>it's like saying, English Literature = English (language) + other stuff... </p>

<p>and then declaring English language itself is a subset of English Literature.</p>

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<p>I have a question that doesn't deserve its own thread, so I might as well ask it amidst this flamefest.</p>

<p>A lot of schools have schools of applied science & technology for engineering technologies as well as the engineering degrees. A lot of laypeople don't know of the distinction. Does it boil your blood when, say, a mechanical engineering technology major identifies himself as a mechanical engineering major? Or has this never come up because they know better than to make such faux pas in front of real engineers?</p>

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<p>at least, ppl don't mistake it the other way around, meaning ppl don't think you're an engineering technology major when you tell them you're an engineer.</p>

<p>there are some countries where this is opposite, where the profession "engineer" is synonymous with "mechanics" or "technician"</p>

<p>so, you would tell them you are an engineer with a bachelor's and these ppl would go, "you don't need to goto college to become an enginer but ok. so you're an engineer with bachelor's degree... as opposed to that other engineer guy with highschool diploma. but do you necessarily make more salaries?"</p>

<p>no. i'm dead serious. so i asked them how they would call "real" engineers, and they told me, "you still call them engineers. you don't distinguish between mechanics and engineers."</p>

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<p>The only prerequisite at the university for Intro. to Complex Analysis is Differential Equations.</p>

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Does it boil your blood when, say, a mechanical engineering technology major identifies himself as a mechanical engineering major?

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<p>For me, it is typically the person who boils my blood rather than the distinction between the majors--someone who after taking one or two classes in X claims to be as proficient as an X major or distills the entire field of X by said class.</p>

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<p>well I heard that EE is the hardest, but ISE is the most loaded major. For ISE you will need to take varieties of courses from math, phy, econ, comm and engineering.</p>

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<p>Shackleford, Real Analysis is just a special case of Complex Analysis, since all real numbers are complex as well, so I guess some colleges don't care if you take both. I think that experiencing Real Analysis first would be very, very helpful, though.</p>

<p>And at my school Real Analysis is a prerequisite for Differential Equations. I would suggest that this is how it is at your school, thus ODE being the only prereq for Complex Analysis, but I think you've said you've taken ODE so I'm hesitant on that.</p>

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<p>chris07, the only requirement for Differential Equations for me is Cal III and Linear Algebra.</p>

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<p>Ok, then the reason is probably the first one I mentioned. I would take a Real Analysis class to get more comfortable with analysis before jumping into CA. Getting into that abstract mode of thinking can be difficult enough without considering imaginary numbers at the same time as real ones.</p>

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<p>The only requirement for Differential Equations in my university was Calc2. Odd.</p>

<p>It has always been my knowledge that all the sciences derive from mathematics, which is the language of the universe. How could someone place the leafs as being harder than the tree itself? If you get my analogy...</p>

<p>Anyways, while engineering/physics can be a tough subject, it is my opinion that math is above them all. Even my fellow engineering/physics friends praise me for doing a math major, they say they could never do it.</p>

<p>This is just my opinion.</p>

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<p>Physics does not derive itself from mathematics. It does not depend on mathematics to function. There is heat between two objects with a disparity in temperature. Energy flows from the hotter object to the colder object instantaneously until there is a thermal equilibrium. We can describe this phenomenon qualitatively and quantitatively. Mathematics is an idea, an abstract way of describing the universe quantitatively. Physics has often required the development of new abstract mathematical concepts to accurately describe the observations. I would say mathematics could be a direct subset of physics. As I mentioned earlier, mathematics is an idea, abstract ways of describing things. Natural laws dictate what the mathematics will look like, not the other way around.</p>

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<p>I stopped reading your post when you said:</p>

<p>"I would say mathematics could be a direct subset of physics."</p>

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I would say mathematics could be a direct subset of physics. As I mentioned earlier, mathematics is an idea, abstract ways of describing things. Natural laws dictate what the mathematics will look like, not the other way around.

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<p>Actually, mathematicians have developed areas of mathematics that, if applied to the physical world as their related counterparts were, would describe impossible physical events. Can we really say that this math is dictated by a lack of natural phenomenon, or is it more accurate to say that nature has chosen selective, convenient and consistent mathematics to run?</p>

<p>But I still think this argument is weak even at a lower level. I just don't understand how natural laws dictate things like the set of real numbers. The concept of three-ness, even though it is used in physics, can't be said to arise from a natural law. It just is on its own.</p>

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<p>I said would and could. Would you prefer math and physics to be two distinct subsets of "science" or separate completely?</p>

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<p>You're misunderstanding my point. If you walk outside and happen to see objects known as trees and then observe that there are more than one in quantity, say, three, then what you observed was not dictated by mathematics but instead by the natural phenomena associated with the trees. I'm simply saying that the natural/physical properties and interactions of a situation are dictated by the known physics but can be quantitatively described by mathematics.</p>

<p>To answer your first question, then those areas of mathematics would simply remain solely in the abstract realm of mathematics. Numbers are ideas. They help us describe and understand the physical world around us. This very basic notion extends into every field of math.</p>

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<p>
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I stopped reading your post when you said:</p>

<p>"I would say mathematics could be a direct subset of physics."

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<p>this whole argument about math being a subset of physics is stupid, not to mention delusional.</p>

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<p>Physics needs Mathematics to survive...Mathematics is used in other fields too.</p>