Re: a book to give the "geography" of "the land of mathematics"
- From: "Rufi_Dukes" <rufi_dukes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 9 May 2006 21:00:15 -0700
Artur wrote:
i want to know what was once meant by pure as opposed to applied maths,
and how that and other distinctions are made these days;
I think pure mathematics is the name given to this science when it's
considered, or studied, as a science in itself, without any purpose
other than enjoying it's beauty, it's logic. In this sense, Math is not
just a mean to achieve a purpose, but it's and end.
The term applied mathematics is used when matehematics is seen and used
as a tooll for some specfic purpose related with technology, Physics,
Economics, Biology, Social Sciences, etc. For instance, there's a
branch of math known as Operations Research, which comprehends several
matematical techniques used chiefly in management and which helps
managers make decisions so as to maximize their profits. I'll give you
an exemple. I'm an engineer and work on the planning of electric
systems, composed of hydro and thermal plants. So, I use mathematical
models, implemented on computers, to find how a system should be
expanded so that demand needs are met with minimum cost. This is
undoubtedly math, but applied math.
I'm not sure if I was clear.
yes, very clear, thanks artur (vous etes francais, nest-ce pas, avec
un prenom pareil)
and thanks for the examples which helped also;
i'm interested in getting a solide grounding in maths and then
possibly persuing physics, the latter being something that has
fascinated me since my adolescence, but which i have had to enjoy at a
remove, so to speak, filtered down to me through the books of popular
physics i read addictively;
now i wish to find out about the maths behind the laws of the universe;
but i, like you, am fascinated by numbers and their interrelatedness,
and would love to have the leisure and the skills to rove in such
rarified fields of clover;
so, dual purpose: pure and applied maths in physics (i guess that puts
my interest in the field of theoretical physics, right?)
thx for the informative response,
regs,
rufus
ng to be clearer; in pure mathematics,
a typical problem might be to determine if the roots of give equation
are rational or irrational. Another might be to decide if the Riemann
hypothesis is true or false, or to decide if there are finitely many or
infinitely many Mersenne primes (of course, there may come a situation
in which such apparently pure theoretical problems become important
for some "practical" purpose).
In applied mathematics, a typical problem is to find an algorith able
to solve a problem like minimizing the costs of a company subject to
some constraints.
I think I'm hybrid, because, as an egineer, I use math in my job, and,
on the other hand, I like math and enjoy studying topicos most
engineers arent fond of.
Artur
.
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