/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.8486312]

What's the point of going to a university to study math? Physics or engineering or chemistry I can understand, because those require specific materials to study them. But if math is what you love, wouldn't it make more sense to just rederive all of modern math by yourself?

[Anonymous No.8486335]

>>8486312
>Expert mode:
>You must re-derive all of modern math on paper without the help of the internet.

>Insane mode:
>You must re-derive all of modern math and solve at least 2 millennium prize problems without the use of any computers.

>Impossible mode:
>Do the above but you must be able to fit all of it on a single 8in by 11in paper and have it done no later than 1 year after you've started.

[Anonymous No.8486729]

>>8486312
>Physics or engineering or chemistry I can understand, because those require specific materials to study them.
No, they don't. Engineering maybe and it can help with physics, but you can certainly study it in an auto-didactic manner.

For example for me undergrad physics taught to physicists are piss easy and I can build most of the experiments at home if I want to or I can program a computer simulation.

>What's the point of going to a university to study math?

Nothing really, unless you want a carrier in it or you take it a second degree (for example engineers) so it forces you to broaden your knowledge.
I'm always learning more and more math, although I'm an applied guy, because studying engineering and physics (physics as a hobby and as I need it in engineering) always forces me to know more math and it improves modeling skills.

However, a university can be better if you want to produce math papers and do rigorous math. It prepares you better to work in a rigorous academic environment.

[Anonymous No.8486744]

>>8486729
>>8486312

>carrier
*career

I also forgot to answer this:
>But if math is what you love, wouldn't it make more sense to just rederive all of modern math by yourself?
Are you out of your mind?
Math can be viewed as the various shit thought up by humans. People try to match all the various ways to think to each other, but you don't have the capacity as a single human being to think of everything. You might very well be incapable of even thinking in certain ways.
Also in a lot of cases the need for abstractions are fueled by the need in physics/engineering/etc.

You basically say this: "Why don't we go and sit on a mountain like a monk and re-derive all the shit by ourselves?" That makes so much sense... sure.

[Anonymous No.8486785]

>>8486312
>What's the point of going to a university to study math?
To give away your money

[Anonymous No.8487014]

>>8486729
>>8486744
>defending the people that are taking thousands of dollars from you every month for absolutely no reason this hard
>>8486785 has it right.

[Anonymous No.8487025]

>>8486312
>wouldn't it make more sense to just rederive all of modern math by yourself?

This misses the point of studying mathematics, which I think I understood way back when I was a freshman, let me explain.

In a certain course we were constructing the numbers, starting from the naturals. There we learned about the Peano axioms and proved every single theorem of arithmetic you could imagine. From proving that addition is associative to proving that the equation x + a = b has a unique solution for any b >= a. There I understood it. We all had gone through high school, we knew how to solve equations so what was the point of doing this? To go back to where we were infants and re-do arithmetic in such a way?

Simple.

The point is to show students how the greatest minds of the past approached studying problems and set foundations for their solutions so that in the future, we can immitate that to solve the problems we may encounter and this true for even subjects like Calculus.

There is a good discussion about calculus because there everything revolves around a single concept, limits. Why were limits defined in the way they are? Why is that definition of limit and the following construction of calculus better than so called non-standard analysis?

Why is that definition of limit better than a more geometrical approach? Why did that definition of limit allow Cauchy and the gang to build the solid tower that is analysis from the house of cards that was newton's calculus?

That is what mathematics is all about. To be guided through a tough history lessons on why mathematics is what it is today.

There is little value in deriving modern math all by yourself because at some point you will have to set up your axioms of arithmetic and without formal training, odds are your axioms will be absolute shit.

Like:
Ax. 1: Addition is commutative

That is garbage. That is a garbage axiom, but that is what someone without training would do.

[Anonymous No.8487045]

>>8486785
>>8487014
>he didn't get a full ride to uni
plebs

[Anonymous No.8487164]

>>8487045
>he paid his way out with taxpayer money
gtfo commie

[Anonymous No.8488303]

>>8487025
>t. brainlet

[Anonymous No.8488378]

>>8486312
>physics
Is easy to learn at home. Chemistry is probably the only rigorous field you need to go to a uni for

[Anonymous No.8488381]

To be taught by experts in their fields. It's also difficult to self study math because when you begin actually doing, you know, stuff beyond basic undergrad material, you need someone to check your proofs and answers to make sure you haven't missed anything subtle.

[Anonymous No.8489415]

>>8486312

Because you don't want to waste 10 years studying what other losers have already discovered.

[Anonymous No.8489770]

>>8486312
>hell ya I'm gonna read all of rudin
>stops at page 3

[Anonymous No.8489808]

>>8489770
This is an interesting point because it reveals how people actually learn. The role of school is not to teach but instead to expose you to all the concepts in layers, each layer in which you fully go through the material a little less clueless each time as you make more and more connections each time.

In other words, don't stop reading/watching when you stop understanding. When you start something, finish it anyways and don't be hard on yourself. Get yourself through it and then begin again perhaps with a different piece of material over the same subject.

[Anonymous No.8489847]

Universities have lab and other equipment that's not available to everyone wanting to practice science or study. Microscopes, animals, beakers, computers, 3d printers, gymnasiums, and people.

With absolute math, programming and literature, sure a personal computer, the internet, and Amazon.com is the bulk of most materials you need. But to test out theories with corrosive chemicals or practice medicine, you'll need some background checks and detail.