Applied Maths?

jumpguy

Sorry for another Applied Maths thread, but the search is down and the Google one is poor.

Myself and (maybe) a friend have been thinking of taking up Applied Maths. I do physics and honours maths. We're both in 5th year (out of 6, before leaving cert) and was thinking of taking up Applied Maths on our own. I have a few questions though:

Is there any good textbooks which are available for it?

How long is the course?

Is it easy to learn at home?

Did/do you think the course is difficult?

How much study will it require the get the course covered myself in 2 years?

Any further advice I may be forgetting (its late) feel free to add...read below as I might add more questions as I think of them.


Thanks in advance.

Making It Bad

Is there any good textbooks which are available for it?

There are two text books as far as I know. One of them is utter crap (apparently), the other one "Fundamental Applied Mathematics" by Oliver Murphy is the one which most people use. It's fairly decent, however, it's a dated book (published over 20 years ago as far as I can remember) with no colour and poor formatting, which can make it difficult to follow if you're used to the new and glossy looking text books. The actual content in it is fairly good but there are some unnecessary things in it which haven't ever come up in over 30 years of examination. It explains things fairly well, and is created with students teaching themselves without a teacher in mind.

How long is the course?

Fairly short depending on how many topics you cover. There are 10 question on paper and you only have to answer 6. The same topics come up every year so you could get away with only cover 6 questions (i.e topics). You could get the 10 topics covered in a year if you put your mind to it.

Is it easy to learn at home?

I wouldn't say easy, but I'd imagine it's well doable if you put the effort in (I'm doing it with a teacher).

Did/do you think the course is difficult?

That depends, how do you find the mechanics section of physics (you're only in 5th year so you may not have covered it yet)? I don't find it particularly difficult, I would say it is about of equal difficulty of honours physics or pure maths. It's hard to say because in Applied Maths there is a lot less learning resources available to you (only one decent text book as I mentioned).

How much study will it require the get the course covered myself in 2 years?

Hard to say, maybe 2-3 hours a week in fifth, 4 hours a week in sixth (to cover entire course). That's just a complete guess though, as I'm not a teacher or anything and haven't even finished the course my self as I'm in sixth year.

Any further advice I may be forgetting (its late) feel free to add...read below as I might add more questions as I think of them.

Do Applied Maths, it's a great subject! It will help your maths (you will become amazing at trig identities and algebra from AM). It will help your physics, AM is just the mechanics section of physics (around 1/4 of physics course, maybe more) in more detail, with no experiments.

Hopefully I've been of some help. Best of luck if you do decide to take it up!

jumpguy

Thanks, great and thorough post. I'll have a look for this book, the fact it's dated is abit off-putting because I am used to new and glossy formats or notes handed out by a teacher. If I used in conjuction with my physics book (provided the topics are the same/similiar) this might be of help. What do you think?

I'm very spurred to do it now thanks to your last post. Even if it goes pear-shaped and I end up not entering it atleast it'll be like extra work with my physics. It's not something I'd tell my friends, but I secretly enjoy maths, provided they go well that is.

Any further advice is appreciated from anyone!

blubloblu

I prefer the applied maths book to some of the other colourful and content-light textbooks.

Making It Bad

blubloblu wrote: »

I prefer the applied maths book to some of the other colourful and content-light textbooks.

I guess it's all down to personal preference. But just because the book is well illustrated doesn't mean it's content light, take the physics book I'm using "Real World Physics" as an example of this. It explains things very well and thoroughly but also has great diagrams and illustrations which keep you interested, at least that's what I find.

jumpguy wrote:

Thanks, great and thorough post. I'll have a look for this book, the fact it's dated is abit off-putting because I am used to new and glossy formats or notes handed out by a teacher. If I used in conjuction with my physics book (provided the topics are the same/similiar) this might be of help. What do you think?

I'm very spurred to do it now thanks to your last post. Even if it goes pear-shaped and I end up not entering it atleast it'll be like extra work with my physics. It's not something I'd tell my friends, but I secretly enjoy maths, provided they go well that is.

No problem, glad it helped. Maybe I was a little harsh on the book, it's actually one of the better text books, very comprehensive. The physics book would provide a great introduction to the topics in Applied Maths, however might not go into enough detail for topics like statics (moments and levers etc.), hydrostatics (same as statics but floating objects in water etc.) and relative velocity (there is no relative velocity on the Physics course). However with topics like Accelerated Linear Motion, and Motion in a Circle, the physics book would nearly go into enough detail I think, you'd still want to practise questions from the exam papers however.

If you enjoy Maths and Physics and solving problems then you'll love it. Another great thing about it is that when the actual Leaving Cert comes around, Applied Maths is always the last exam in the entire thing. This means you get an extra few days before it to study up (the extra days before it you'll also more than likely not have any other tests on). Having it last also makes it less stressful (I'd imagine anyway).

myfatherrsson

Id always be the first to profess my love of applied maths and encourage anyone with a potency for numbers to take it up but the most significant difference between applied maths and other subjects is that the course heavily relies on your own mthematical ability and understanding as opposed to you learning loads of stuff off and writing it all down in the exam! Belive me theres a reason the course is so short with relatively few formulas to learn!!!

I would definitely encourage you to do it! It was my favourite subject in secondary school by far and it is great fun! My one piece of advice would be to not go it alone......if there is any chance of getting grinds once a week/fortnight to help you along then do it! Because its all well and good looking at sample answers and connecting the dots there but there are certain tricks and methods of thinking that you can only learn from an experienced teacher that could mean the difference between an A1 and C1!! I would be very surprised if you went it alone and got an A.....

Also....although AM is similar to the Physics course, dont bank on them being the same and certainly dont rely on the physics book helping you understand how to go about solving AM questions! The most simple AM question is often as difficult or more so than the hardest Phys one!

I know im sounding negative here but to study AM right you have to know that its a very very difficult course to begin with! You're introduced to new concepts of analysis and reasoning that you wont be used to and thats why a teacher is very useful for explaining these things! It gets easier as it goes along as you get used to the ideas obviously but taking it alone can be disheartening especially when you have no one to refer to for help! In our class most got A1s and yet we still couldnt do some questions ourselves towards the end of 6th year!

But DO take it up! Learn it, obsess about it and LOVE IT! Thats what I did! You wont regret being able to breeze through the mechanics section of physics, trigonometry, algebra, differentiation and integreation of maths either!