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Mathematics Applicants 2012

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Reply 160

anyone_can_fly

Original post by IcedTea&PotNoodle

This is funnier than the guy who said he reads maths comic strips.

That was probably me :redface:

. But maths comic strips are epic!

And don't know where proof by induction crops up in the English syllabus, so this may not make sense. But:

Oh, and just for future reference, *she. It's my fault for not putting the wee symbol by my name, but thought I'd better point it out.

Reply 161

laughylolly

Original post by anyone_can_fly

I tried to find a "Yay! Scotland!" smiley, but there doesn't seem to be one. So I'll have to make do with this: :woo:

It's not that scary, just like higher, but... trickier and with more stuff to memorise. It looks like there are lots of people cleverer than me on this thread - everyone seems to be aiming for 100% in all their exams! :eek:

What would you say was the hardest jump between higher and AH maths?

I don't think it just that but I think it's easier to get 100% in A levels because they are modular whereas we just have end of year exams.

Original post by dnumberwang

Not a typo :tongue:

Ew macs. If I had a pound for every time someone mentioned a mac, I could go out a buy a real computer :smile:

Anyway sometimes I do actually mess around with this application I have on my ipod which plots graphs of functions :tongue:

That's rather sad but oh well.

Hahaha

Reply 162

anyone_can_fly

Original post by laughylolly

Well, calculus gets a lot more complicated: at higher the hardest thing you'd see would be something like sin(2x^2), whereas we get yucky things like (inversetan(X^3))/(ln x). On the other hand, as with Higher, as long as you know the rules you're fine. Proof and complex numbers probably require the most brainwork. I find vectors and matrices the hardest, but that's because they're deadly dull and I just switch off.
Also, the exam seems to me to be much more formulaic than at Higher - you never get a completely insane question, whereas most of the Higher papers are a bit unpredictable.

Reply 163

IcedTea&PotNoodle

Original post by anyone_can_fly

That was probably me :redface:

. But maths comic strips are epic!

And don't know where proof by induction crops up in the English syllabus, so this may not make sense. But:

Oh, and just for future reference, *she. It's my fault for not putting the wee symbol by my name, but thought I'd better point it out.

They are fairly amusing and my apologies about the gender mistake. I've done that twice now on this thread.

Reply 164

Tom1993

Original post by hassi94

Okay thanks.

I'm on AQA, but tbh it's not much better. It's an A2 module so it's slightly harder (more steps to memorise but on fewer algorithms) but you have to think about it a little more than D1 so I'd say it's a little better. Still nothing compared to real maths :P

Haha, thanks. I've got to do it next year -_-
At least it's a little better. I do hate it with a passion though, it's just not maths...

Reply 165

laughylolly

Original post by anyone_can_fly

Okay. I've glanced at a AH paper and it didn't look too too bad. I did matrices a year ago (was in the syllabus for IGCSE Maths... I don't know why...) so I should be okay with that sort of thing but I get what you mean about them being a bit dull.

I haven't found the Higher Papers THAT unpredictable... I've done quite a few and there hasn't been any questions that I would consider insane, although saying that there was a pretty insane question in my prelim but that was a mix up of all papers and stuff.

Reply 166

maths134

Original post by Tom1993

Yes, it's normal I feel exactly the same!
Also, d1, eurgh. I hated it so...
Is d2 any better? Are you on edexcel?

I'm doing edexcel D2, self teaching it and the module is fine, better than D1 actually. More things to remember and its a bit arduous but doable =D

Reply 167

Tom1993

Original post by maths134

I'm doing edexcel D2, self teaching it and the module is fine, better than D1 actually. More things to remember and its a bit arduous but doable =D

That's good news then. At least it's doable.
I just feel it isn't maths. =/

Reply 168

laughylolly

Thread has gone a bit quiet so here's a question for you all.

What's your favourite area of Maths and why?

For me it has to be Geometry, I guess because it is more visually appealing compared to other areas. I love solving interesting geometry problems.

Reply 169

Dirac Spinor

probability, I like the way it is involved in quantum mechanics.

Reply 170

Reminisce

Number Theory - a simple list of integers could tell you so much... Gave me a new perspective into the intricacy of mathematics.

Reply 171

maths134

Hmm well my personal 2 favourites - Calculus and Algebra (broadest term) probably because of my hatred for applied maths and my love of pure <3

Reply 172

ilovedubstep

Original post by maths134

Hmm well my personal 2 favourites - Calculus and Algebra (broadest term) probably because of my hatred for applied maths and my love of pure <3

Snap.

Reply 173

Tom1993

Original post by maths134

Hmm well my personal 2 favourites - Calculus and Algebra (broadest term) probably because of my hatred for applied maths and my love of pure <3

Original post by ilovedubstep

Snap.

Again snap. Although i don't hate applied i just love pure!

Reply 174

anyone_can_fly

Original post by laughylolly

I'm probably going to go for number theory too, though I'm conscious of the fact that what we do here at school barely qualifies.

Original post by maths134

Hmm well my personal 2 favourites - Calculus and Algebra (broadest term) probably because of my hatred for applied maths and my love of pure <3

It's funny - if I recall correctly, the maths professor I talked to on the St Andrews open day told us that at uni both of these were considered applied! :biggrin:

Though I guess it's more pure than that yucky mechanics stuff. I guess it just goes to show how different maths is at university level. :smile:

Reply 175

IrrationalNumber

Original post by maths134

Hmm well my personal 2 favourites - Calculus and Algebra (broadest term) probably because of my hatred for applied maths and my love of pure <3

Original post by ilovedubstep

Snap.

Original post by Tom1993

Again snap. Although i don't hate applied i just love pure!

Wait and see what applied maths is like at university, it's much closer to the C/FP courses you've taken. Essentially pure mathematics courses involve a lot of proofs (the proofs will usually be very general) and applied mathematics courses involve a lot of calcuations (which could be a lot of integrals).

Original post by anyone_can_fly

It's funny - if I recall correctly, the maths professor I talked to on the St Andrews open day told us that at uni both of these were considered applied! :biggrin:

Though I guess it's more pure than that yucky mechanics stuff. I guess it just goes to show how different maths is at university level. :smile:

I think most people would say algebra is pure, but you likely haven't done what we call algebra. Manipulating equations and the like isn't covered so much at university - it's considered a necessary tool for applied courses. The stuff with matrices is continued to linear algebra and eventually you cover infinite dimensional matrices with linear analysis. In fact most of the stuff from the a-level courses feature heavily in both pure and applied mathematics: they are very much prerequisites to understanding maths.

Reply 176

dnumberwang

I've only done proof by induction so far but that's pretty good
Mechanics is just awful, even worse than stats

Reply 177

maths134

Original post by dnumberwang

I've only done proof by induction so far but that's pretty good
Mechanics is just awful, even worse than stats

taking a step back from my earlier comment i quite enjoy Mechanics, its stats I have my issues with.
And please dont get me started on proof by induction, it cant really be considered 'proper' proof can it ? its just so ugh. Assume true for n=1 so now true for n=k (=/)

Reply 178

IrrationalNumber

Original post by maths134

Proof by induction is very much a proper proof technique. That's not really the logic behind it though: You prove it's true for n=1 (1) and then you show that if it's true for some k it's also true for (k+1) (2). This shows it must be true for all n, because by (1) it's true for n=1, and so by (2) (using k=1) it's true for 2, and so by (2) (using k=2) it's true for 3, and so....

In fact, the method of proof by induction can be formally proven using something called the well ordering principle.