Pure, Applied and Applicable?

Basically I'm trying to figure out exactly what comes under these different headings, as I've been told subjects such as Calculus are considered applied in University Maths. As such it would not be a clever idea to apply for a Math/Phil degree as it would exclude certain subjects I enjoy. As a general rule I prefer the kind of simplification/algebra (to be very vague..) type topics, such as logs and exponentials, differential equations, calculus. I HATE statistics and dicreet/descision maths, and my mechanics is ok, but not fantastic. So if someone could give me some clue as to what sections these would fall under it would be much appreciated.
Cheers

Andy

Reply 1

-Vijay-

andy5788

Basically I'm trying to figure out exactly what comes under these different headings, as I've been told subjects such as Calculus are considered applied in University Maths. As such it would not be a clever idea to apply for a Math/Phil degree as it would exclude certain subjects I enjoy. As a general rule I prefer the kind of simplification/algebra (to be very vague..) type topics, such as logs and exponentials, differential equations, calculus. I HATE statistics and dicreet/descision maths, and my mechanics is ok, but not fantastic. So if someone could give me some clue as to what sections these would fall under it would be much appreciated.
Cheers

Andy

Pure at A-level
Calculus,
Logs and exponentials,
Differential equations,

Applied at A-level
Statistics
Dicreet/descision maths
Mechanics

Reply 2

Bingo Jesus

-Vijay-

Pure at A-level
Calculus,
Logs and exponentials,
Differential equations,

Applied at A-level
Statistics
Dicreet/descision maths
Mechanics

I thought that it was 'Core' instead of 'Pure'. Just because Universities don't consider much of the Pure A-Level course to be that pure.

Reply 3

andy5788

OP

14

I know what classes as what at A-Level, im asking what classes as what at degree level?

EDIT: That sounded a bit snappy...
I just mean I'm currently doing A-Level so I know what goes under what heading at this point, just people saying things like Calculus classes as applied at degree level has started me wondering what exactly comes under what heading at University?

Reply 4

Ditzy

1

Ok, applied at uni is things like mechanics, calculus, relativity, Stats is just stats, and pure is pretty much everything else, so analysis, logic, computation, number theory.

Reply 5

andy5788

OP

14

That's the thing though.... What exactly is analysis? Or Number Theory? Lol.....

Reply 6

Ditzy

1

andy5788

That's the thing though.... What exactly is analysis? Or Number Theory? Lol.....

There are a few examples here.
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=2261253&postcount=37

Reply 7

Gaz031

15

andy5788

That's the thing though.... What exactly is analysis? Or Number Theory? Lol.....

Very basically analysis is the rigorous study of limits and convergence. One use of analysis can be to build up calculus, so that you actually know why it works, but it has many other uses. The subject (or at least introductory real analysis) seems to be really quite interesting and in a different style from A-Level.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_analysis

Number theory is basically the study of the integers. While this might not sound complicated first appearances are misleading - the proof of Fermat's last theorem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermats_Last_Theorem) uses over 200 pages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory

The topic starter might also wish to see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_mathematics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_mathematics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics

Pure, Applied and Applicable?

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