Posted: May 04, 2010 1:15 am
lpetrich wrote:Zubin, do you have any direct evidence of that? I ask that because most physics fields are rather heavily mathematical.
Not sure what qualifies evidence for you, but:
I'm a physics student and I've talked with many physicists and mathematicians of all ages.
I've also visited quite a few physics/math forums and the results have been no different.
Just because you use mathematics does not mean you're good at math, nor does it mean you're a mathematician. Physics is more intuition based whereas pure mathematics is more rigorous. This is why a physics student may struggle the first time they come across a course being taught on "Mathematical Physics" because those courses are often taught by math professors. Sure, in more analytical physics courses you will need to know more math and have a better understanding of math, but even then that does not mean you're good at math.
Look at the textbook Mathematical Methods In The Physical Sciences by Mary L. Boas and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.