Analysis

Hey guys

More of an opinion question rather than a technical one: what do you undergrads think of Analysis?

Admittedly, having not done f.maths + taking a gap year, my maths was exceedingly rusty upon starting uni and analysis just BLEW ME AWAY. I HATED it at first, disgusted by the sight of epsilon and delta. I mean, who the HELL gave two hoots whether a real sequence had a monotone subsequence or not?!

But now, fast forward to exam time, I'm beginning to actually develop an eery fascination for Analysis. It's elegant, robust and the ESSENCE of mathematics, I find. Actually going through the notes, wrestling with a few concepts and getting that "A-HA" moment is arguably better than sex (I lie).

What do ya'll think?

Cheers :smile:

Reply 1

DFranklin

I was really, really good at Analysis as an undergrad (got 98% on it in the IA Tripos, when 50% was enough for a first), and I enjoy it.

But to be honest, the deeper into Analysis I got, the more I found myself thinking a lot of it was a waste of time. It can feel a lot like pushing symbols around for the sake of it.

Reply 2

eulerwaswrong

DFranklin

It can feel a lot like pushing symbols around for the sake of it.

what is maths?

Reply 3

Dimez

98%?! Is THAT it? I thought you were good DFranklin! :p:

Incidentally, I got 36% in my Jan exam having not revised...woohooo! At least I was able to define a Cauchy Sequence... :biggrin:

Reply 4

The Bachelor

DFranklin

So graduate analysis isn't a good thing? :p:

Reply 5

DFranklin

Ancient Runes

So graduate analysis isn't a good thing? :p:

It wasn't for me (though it was one of my better Part III courses, examwise). I (vaguely, after all these years) remember something like 5 lectures being devoted to proving something about the behaviour of solutions to Poisson's equation on the boundary of the Mandelbrot set and sitting there thinking "what's the point?".

Reply 6

Dimez