Physics vs Maths

[Whiternoise]

I was having a discussion with one of my friends (uni next year, so we were discussing possible subjects). She said she wanted to do maths, and i made a rather innapropriate (but funny) dungeons and dragons player immitation.

So now the argument goes.. which subject is nerdier*?

Obviously if you took all subjects into account then computer science would arguably be the nerdiest, closesly followed by some form of maths/science.

I would say maths (being more physics inclined).. thoughts?

*not neccesarily in a bad way

[Nick Smith]

imo...physics

not sure why, just feel that its more nerdy tbh...

[teachmech]

As a maths graduate then I would say Physics

[manwithnoname]

...
Obviously if you took all subjects into account then computer science would arguably be the nerdiest, closesly followed by some form of maths/science...

As a 25th level wizard I should fireball you ...

It's a bit like comparing the bottom 3 football teams of the conference, which is the best? Who has the bragging rights? Unless you support one of the teams no one gives a toss, and it just embarrassing to watch the argument of who is the best.

...but it's obviously maths - imaginary numbers that just crazy

maybe you should have started a poll.

[Kezzer]

It's not the degree that's nerdy, it's the people who partake in the degree.

[Merlin4458]

physics definatly. Maths jsut seems a little cooler, and people generally think, WOW she/he msut be clever to do maths at uni, whereas people doing phyics at uni, i tend to think, why u chose that? its not that hard to do it at uni...

[manwithnoname]

It's not the degree that's nerdy, it's the people who partake in the degree.

True but these courses appear to attract them. Nothing scientific about this but in my experience the distribution of geeks and nerds increases greatly then you get to the science subjects probably peaking at computer related courses at least it appear to ~15 years ago.

[Lee`]

its not that hard to do it at uni...

Is this from experience?

[Whiternoise]

Yes.. a poll would have been the clever idea..

If phyiscs was so easy to do at uni, then why is the number of people taking it so low?

[Dorza]

I was led to believe that maths and physics at FE & HE levels were one and the same thing, just applied differently...

[herulach]

I did an Mphys in theoretical physics, which is absically a maths degree. No labs, theoretical (read maths) project in quantum mechanics in the final year.

Imo, and having shared a lot of classes with maths students (about 50% of the course was taught by the maths department), neither are particularly nerdy, certainly no more than the readership on here. Just a lot of very intelligent people, who tend to be typecast because people cant understand what they do.

You want real nerds you need to go to a compsci lab.

As for physics being easy at degree level, far from it, especially if you have any labs involved, which basically means 60 credits of the year your max mark is more or less 70%, and thats if its perfect

[Whiternoise]

Hah right, ok i'll rephrase the question to which subject has the most stereotyped nerdiness

I'm not too bothered about the typecast stuff, i enjoy physics and who cares what anyone else thinks about it.

[edavies87]

Studying Maths, would not of chosen Physics, Took several Physics modules and those classes were very nerdy, Comp Sci is obviously the worse! Maths class has the odd few but in general nice class.

[chriswood_7]

I think Maths is more nerdy...

Physics has at least some relevance to something, Maths is just numbers and letters making other numbers and letters that mean nothing to anyone.

And thats just crazy talk

[JPreston]

Maths FTW.

Except it's pronounced 'Mathematics', as in "My degree is in Mathematics" to be followed by a pause to underline the superiority of your vast intellect.

As opposed to "My degree is in physics. Do you mind if I keep my anorak on because Mum says I'll catch a cold otherwise? Can you open my flask of weak lemon drink for me please? She screwed the top on too tight....."

[monkeyville]

To be honest i think you'll find more nerds in an Engineering course than a maths lecture. Physics seems to have a much higher percentage of nerds in total though. CS is definitely the worst of the lot though. [As a side note is it coincidence that Computer science is shortened to CS? Personally i think not]