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Maths at Oxford and Cambridge.

Sock Puppet

(Holds up hand and professes ignorance.)
What does that mean? That people who complete a bachelor's in maths elsewhere can go to Cambridge and do the final stages of the Cambridge maths BA? What do they end up with having done so? Or do they just have to do it as a prereq for graduate study there?

Part III is an optional part, not part of the BA. It's a one year postgrad course leading to a certificate of advanced study in mathematics. To do a PhD in maths you usually need this or a masters in maths.

Reply 21

Squishy

11

shiny

Dude, that was back in 1920?! :confused:

I'm sure the average Cambridge mathmo back then was probably better than the average Cambridge mathmo today?!

Quite possibly...the average maths candidate for, say, top Russian or Chinese universities would probably blow most Cambridge maths undergrads out of the water these days.

Reply 22

Sock Puppet

Drogue

Part III is an optional part, not part of the BA. It's a one year postgrad course leading to a certificate of advanced study in mathematics. To do a PhD in maths you usually need this or a masters in maths.

Aha, right....so if you don't bother with the PhD, you still get to say you hold a "Part III (Cantab)"?

Reply 23

Sock Puppet

Squishy

Yup, Wiles did his PhD at Cambridge, and it was also there that he later announced his first proof of Fermat's Last Theorem...I doubt his undergraduate teaching had as much effect on him.

Hmmm, but if it had been the other way round, do you not think you'd be saying something along the lines of, "Ah, yes, Wiles spent his formative years at Cambridge. That would have been the most important period for him bla bla etc."?

Reply 24

Squishy

11

Nope, I don't think that, and he didn't.

Reply 25

yeep

Squishy

Nope, I don't think that, and he didn't.

Well its true, he was given his initial grounding at Oxford

Reply 26

shiny

12

yeep

Well its true, he was given his initial grounding at Oxford

He was born in Cambridge! :smile:

Reply 27

Sock Puppet

Squishy

Nope, I don't think that, and he didn't.

I know he didn't. What I posted was a counterfactual question.

Reply 28

Drogue

19

Sock Puppet

Aha, right....so if you don't bother with the PhD, you still get to say you hold a "Part III (Cantab)"?

You'd say you have a certificate in advanced mathematics from Cambridge, officially. Most people realise it's basically a taught masters.

Reply 29

Font

OP

cambridge are better at maths than oxford, because all they do is compete with eachother, hence increased competition leads to a raised standard! losers :bebored:

Oxford people treat maths with love and affection :biggrin:

. We don't need to compete with each other...we are way above that :rolleyes:

PK

Reply 30

S@sha

7

Squishy

Yup, Wiles did his PhD at Cambridge, and it was also there that he later announced his first proof of Fermat's Last Theorem

I hate to break it to you, but you are wrong.

Reply 31

Mop

S@sha

I hate to break it to you, but you are wrong.

Some sort of explanation/evidence to back that up wouldn't go amiss.

Reply 32

Bezza

2

S@sha

I hate to break it to you, but you are wrong.

umm, he first announced it on Wednesday 23 June 1993 at around 10.30 in the morning at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge I'm afraid. Admittedly there was a hole that had to be fixed, but he still announced it there first.

Reply 33

Sock Puppet

Bezza

umm, he first announced it on Wednesday 23 June 1993 at around 10.30 in the morning at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge I'm afraid. Admittedly there was a hole that had to be fixed, but he still announced it there first.

Well, I might have *announced* that I had solved the Goldbach Conjecture while at primary school, but if I happen to finally solve it next year (this seems unlikely, btw) I doubt that my primary school will be claiming that I solved said conjecture while still a pupil there.

Reply 34

Mop

Sock Puppet

Well, I might have *announced* that I had solved the Goldbach Conjecture while at primary school, but if I happen to finally solve it next year (this seems unlikely, btw) I doubt that my primary school will be claiming that I solved said conjecture while still a pupil there.

Yes, but you wouldn't have had even the beginnings of a proof at primary school, whereas what Wiles announced in Cambridge was very similar (give or take a few holes in the logic) to what was eventually published.

Reply 35

S@sha

7

Bezza

umm, he first announced it on Wednesday 23 June 1993 at around 10.30 in the morning at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge I'm afraid. Admittedly there was a hole that had to be fixed, but he still announced it there first.

His announcement was wrong. If you go by first announcement, there are countless mathematicians, who preceded him, who had announced the same thing time after time. His proof had a serious mistake and took a very long time to amend, having to devise new methods/theory/whatever.

Fact is... All the time he spent on the problem, he had been at Princeton, he solved it at Princeton and published it at Princeton. End of story. The presentation in Cambridge was that of a false theory.

P.S. He also spent two years at Oxford in the late eighties (i think) as he wanted to come back for a little while. He had the choice of either institution and had been to both before, as undergraduate and graduate. He chose Oxford. :smile:

for his two years in England.

Reply 36

shiny

12

S@sha

P.S. He also spent two years at Oxford in the late eighties (i think) as he wanted to come back for a little while. He had the choice of either institution and had been to both before, as undergraduate and graduate. He chose Oxford. :smile:

for his two years in England.

Probably because Donaldson and Kornheimer were s**t hot at the time! :eek:

Reply 37

fishpaste

i think the fact he chose to come back from princeton and do his talk in the CMS is what is important. what we care about is that he's a world icon of maths. the truth is that when he thought he was revealing some of the most iconic maths for several centuries, he wanted to do it in the CMS.

Reply 38

shiny

12

fishpaste

i think the fact he chose to come back from princeton and do his talk in the CMS is what is important. what we care about is that he's a world icon of maths. the truth is that when he thought he was revealing some of the most iconic maths for several centuries, he wanted to do it in the CMS.

Actually this is not correct. CMS did not exist when Wiles announced his proof. It didn't even physically exist until I was a third year!

What you are talking about is the Isaac Newton Institute which is a National Institute for Mathematics and is a distinct entity from CMS.

Reply 39

Bezza

2

S@sha

His announcement was wrong. If you go by first announcement, there are countless mathematicians, who preceded him, who had announced the same thing time after time. His proof had a serious mistake and took a very long time to amend, having to devise new methods/theory/whatever.

I know his announcement was wrong, as I said, but up until that point, there were only a couple of people in the world who even knew he was working on proving Fermat's Last Theorem. If you meant he didn't announce a full proof of it in his Cambridge lecture then I'd obviously agree with you.

Maths at Oxford and Cambridge.

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