I am in currently in college, wanting to study applied mathematics and physics. How many discrete math courses am I required to take; is it necessary that I take any at all?
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closed as not constructive by Austin Mohr, TMM, Matt N., Lukas Geyer, Cameron Buie Nov 18 '12 at 22:14
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How many you’re required to take depends entirely on the institution and departments involved. How many you ought to take depends on the sort of applied mathematics and physics you want to do. A standard introductory course of the sort that you’re now taking ought to be required of anyone going into any field of applied mathematics, but if your interests lean heavily towards physics, you might not need much more than that. Then again, you might: I know a theoretical chemist whose work involved a lot of combinatorics. |
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You should encounter thermodynamics and statistical mechanics at some point, so you must understand combinatorics. I would recommend an intro to discrete math, where you first study combinatorics and graphs. I took modern physics which served as an introduction to special relativity, quantum theory, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Most people struggled with quantum mechanics because they have not seen pdes; and could not understand statistical mechanics because they have never seen how to take a word problem and turned it into a combinatorics problem. |
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