If you had to choose 1 University subject to study from the Natural Sciences Faculty?

[Cius]

In this country definitely Maths. Its the hardest and one of the least often taken tertiary subjects due to how poor our math literacy is in this country. Hence anyone with tertiary maths can get hired into our financial industry at salaries significantly higher than jobs that do not include math. This is why in SA engineers and CA's earn 600% more than teachers and plumbers where in places like Australia Engineers and CA's earn perhaps 25-50% more than those. Supply and demand and all that stuff.

 

[Humberto]

There may be co-requisites for some subjects. For example, you can't only take physics, you need to take maths too in order to take physics.

I would take maths, the master and slave of science: master because maths is the most basic and fundamental of all the sciences, and slave because she stands in service to the other sciences. Some have compared maths to the queen of sciences, the woman behind the king, who does not wield power directly, but indirectly, through her influence on the king.

But to do maths, you would have to be interested in studying maths in and of itself, else you'll feel miserable and depressed doing it.

If not maths then I would take physics or computer science, but I think you'd need to take maths too in order to take physics or computer science.

 

[themba990]

Physics

 

[Bar0n]

Some have compared maths to the queen of sciences, the woman behind the king

Bull****. Gauss called mathematics the queen of the sciences, not because it is second to (or behind) any other science, but because of its elegance.

Mathematics is the purest of all the sciences. It does not depend on any other field, i.e. in the way that physics depends on maths.

 

[Humberto]

Bull****. Gauss called mathematics the queen of the sciences, not because it is second to (or behind) any other science, but because of its elegance.

Mathematics is the purest of all the sciences. It does not depend on any other field, i.e. in the way that physics depends on maths.

He called it the queen of science because in the real world, pure mathematics is of academic interest only; it gains practical worth through its application in other sciences, just as the queen wields no real power, but has great power through her influence on her king. That's the whole point to calling it the queen, rather than king, of science. This is not the same as saying that mathematics is a lesser science.

 

[Bar0n]

He called it the queen of science because in the real world, pure mathematics is of academic interest only; it gains practical worth through its application in other sciences, just as the queen wields no real power, but has great power through her influence on her king. That's the whole point to calling it the queen, rather than king, of science. This is not the same as saying that mathematics is a lesser science.

Pure mathematics has plenty of real world applications, especially in computer science and cryptography. So too does applied mathematics, without manifesting itself as a lesser science.

Saying it is of academic interest only is nonsense, pure and simple.

 

[Humberto]

Pure mathematics has plenty of real world applications, especially in computer science and cryptography. So too does applied mathematics, without manifesting itself as a lesser science.

Saying it is of academic interest only is nonsense, pure and simple.

An example of the queen phenomenon

Category theory is an area of maths that has no direct application in the real world. But it has plenty of application in algebra, and some areas of algebra find application in the real world. So category theory is an example of an area of mathematics that is of academic interest only to those who study it (they don't set out to solve real-world problems when they do research), but that wields its influence on the real world indirectly.

On applied mathematics

In my opinion, "applied mathematics" is a misnomer. Applied mathematics is taking known mathematics and applying it to subjects outside mathematics, with no contribution to mathematics itself. An example of this is the use of differential equations (which has mathematical merit in its own right) to study problems in physics or engineering where there is essentially no mathematically worthwhile contribution to the theory of differential equations, but there is a worthwhile contribution to the theory of physics or engineering. The reason why mathematicians get involved in these problems is usually because they are beyond the mathematical competence of the physicists or engineers who would otherwise have worked on them.

In my opinion, there is only mathematics, a subset of which is applicable mathematics (mathematics which has applications potential while maintaining mathematical merit in its own right - often called "applied mathematics"). The other stuff (also often called "applied mathematics") is essentially work outside mathematics, but it happens to involve complicated mathematics which is why mathematicians get involved in these areas.

 

[Techne]

My 2c:

1) Physics and/or maths (to understand how the small things work)
2) Chemistry (to understand the many way in which these small things above can react in interesting ways)
3) Biochemistry and cell biology (To understand the chemistry of life)
4) Human Physiology (not a natural science field, but it is good for understanding how your body works)
5) And finally, logic, philosophy and metaphysics to make sense of it all . (also not natural sciences of course)

 

[Bar0n]

An example of the queen phenomenon

Category theory is an area of maths that has no direct application in the real world. But it has plenty of application in algebra, and some areas of algebra find application in the real world. So category theory is an example of an area of mathematics that is of academic interest only to those who study it (they don't set out to solve real-world problems when they do research), but that wields its influence on the real world indirectly.

Category theory forms a big part of functional language programming (e.g. Haskell).

 

[Bar0n]

On applied mathematics

An example of this is the use of differential equations (which has mathematical merit in its own right) to study problems in physics or engineering where there is essentially no mathematically worthwhile contribution to the theory of differential equations

If I wanted to work with (or develop) political stability models, would that be physics or engineering? Neither. There are many applications of DEs which do not belong to either physics or engineering.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

I'd choose Microbiology, but that's just me