Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaps
The maths components of these courses are woefully inadequate. Professional astronomy is more maths than anything. Without a thorough grounding in advanced mathematics and an ability to compute and reduce at the highest levels, you can never even pretend to be a "real" astronomer. Like it or not, it's a fact. Most graduates of these courses have what some refer to disparagingly as "Omni" or "New Scientist" educations: They can blather on like an expert about astronomical topics at a populist-level but, as soon as any mathematical ability is required, their whole shtick falls apart.
There are no shortcuts to the big league.
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I concur whole-hearteadly with this view … usually PhD eligibility in Theoretical Physics, is directly related to the achievement of honours level mastery in applied mathematics. If one doesn't achieve this level of academic prowess, PhD level qualifications won't ever be offered as an option.
A lack of experience in mathematical training during undergraduate courses, will virtually guarantee a shallower understanding of the AstroPhysical aspects which one is almost immediately confronted with, in Astronomy, or virtually any of the Physics related sciences.
Its unfortunate, but even an appreciation of this view, in itself, requires exposure to a comparatively sophisticated level of achievement in pure and applied mathematics.
There are no shortcuts to achieving deeper understanding in this field.
Cheers