Ok, I am about to register for my summer and fall classes and I need a little bit of information from people who have experience. Over summer I am taking Calculus 2 and in the Fall I am taking Calc 3 and Ordinary Differential Equations (all along side Physics 2, yey math overload ). I was wondering what the difficulty is like for Calc 3 and Diff. Eq. I know Calc 3 is suppose to be easier than Calc 2 but how hard is Diff. Eq. compared to these courses? Thanks.
If i remember right, diffy-q is harder than calc 3, but easier than calc 2... I think... that is at least what I heard from some people.
What is the syllabus for calc. 3? I hate ODEs with a passion - they require the heuristic step I'm not capable of making.
I am not quite sure. I am just finishing up Calc 1 right now. I was talking to one of my friends and he said that it was very easy compared to Calc 2 but then again he is also incredibly smart and is doing Calc 3 as a math to ease back into mathematics for engineering after 4 years without a math.
If I recall correctly (and if your school works the same as mine), Calc 3 is multivariable calculus, which is a walk in the park. Variables that you aren't deriving by are treated as constants. Thus, d/dx (x^2 + y^2) is just 2x. That plus some trig and vectors is all there is to it. Diff EQ, on the other hand, is very hard. Unlike multivariable, which is easy to visualize, DEQ is almost entirely formulas and massive amounts of rather difficult algebra. If you like that stuff, you might find it the other way around, but I had no trouble at all getting an A in multivariable and barely managed to pass DEQ.
Correct. Calc3 is Multivariable. Well I am prepared to possibly make a C in Diff EQ class as this summer I am taking a load of easy classes to boost my grade and also get me on track for a masters in 5 degree.
I thought Multivariate Calc was the more difficult of the two, but then again, I had an excellent young PhD student for a Diff Eq professor, and an angry old man as a Multivariate Calc professor. I was pretty good at double and triple integrals, but line and surface integrals, and Green's/Stoke's/Divergence theorem were tricky for me, and then they went into some linear algebra, which was difficult as well. Differential Equations, OTOH, begins simple, but can get super long and complicated, especially when you get into Laplace's equation. If you're systematic, and can remember long processes, you can get it though, because pretty much all of the big differential equations are very similar, just as long as you can deal with boundry conditions.
7 years in the workplace and i'm shocked at how much i've forgoten... Come on brain - me an' you got som re-learnin' to do! ... i promise to get back to killing you with alcohol straight after though
