Who is 100% sure of what they are going to major in?

[humph]

^ what can u do with a pure maths major?

Not much, other than become an academic.

Though it isn't too hard to get a job in finance and related areas with a degree in pure maths because they'd expect you to be able to apply your mad problem solving skills to other areas.

The same though could be said about philosophy (no offence intended)! Anything people major in can predominantly have academic as a profession.

A lot of mathematicians do become academics (so do many scientists) and I don't see any problem 'sitting on my arse solving maths problems since thats what I did at high school'. I would enjoy that, but, careerwise I would probably want to balance: what I enjoy vs salary.

I have included engineering as a major option, since its the way I could apply my interest of maths and physics being involved in projects that would be created to serve the real world.

Bottom line I want to be able to do a profession that allows me to use maths and physics! The problem is I don't know enough of my major areas to say I want to go down that path because I fear what I could miss out on if I chose one thing over another.

I wasn't paying academia out as an option; in fact, it's precisely my goal (I'm a third year science student only doing pure maths)
Mind you it's not exactly "problem solving" in the high school sense that you do as an academic - it's a lot of writing papers on areas of mathematical research where you've *slightly* improved some result proved by someone else ten years ago. And then every once in a while someone makes some massive breakthrough, and other academics read that paper and build on it. And so on and so on.

A thing to remember is that "mathematical physics" usually means abstract stuff, like using Riemannian geometry as a model for string theory, or proving the existence to certain types of partial differential equations that are important in some area of physics. Something like engineering or experimental physics would be a more "natural" (based on high school and first year uni) usage of the maths and physics that you've done so far; when you get further along, you'll see that a devoting yourself purely to maths or physics can lead to very theoretical areas (even applied mathematics is very theoretical in nature and often not nearly as connected to its applications as the name might suggest).

[iamdan08]

I tried to ask one of my tutors this, but didn't get a proper answer...

How do you actually research maths. Like how do you have breakthroughs and stuff. I've always been curious about this.

[methodsboy]

A lot of mathematicians do become academics (so do many scientists) and I don't see any problem 'sitting on my arse solving maths problems since thats what I did at high school'. I would enjoy that, but, careerwise I would probably want to balance: what I enjoy vs salary.

clearly you didn't quote me correctly. what i said before was :
"isn't that just sitting on ur ass and solving equations? would u get paid much for that?"
NOT
"sitting on my arse solving maths problems since..."
next time you decide to quote me in order to degrade me online, do it with a little discretion  

[dcc]

OP: Mathematics.  My signature says so.

[kurrymuncher]

A lot of mathematicians do become academics (so do many scientists) and I don't see any problem 'sitting on my arse solving maths problems since thats what I did at high school'. I would enjoy that, but, careerwise I would probably want to balance: what I enjoy vs salary.

clearly you didn't quote me correctly. what i said before was :
"isn't that just sitting on ur ass and solving equations? would u get paid much for that?"
NOT
"sitting on my arse solving maths problems since..."
next time you decide to quote me in order to degrade me online, do it with a little discretion  

omg, maybe he is wasnt quoting you, idiot!!! read the thread carefully. Where was he trying to "degrade" you???

[QuantumJG]

A lot of mathematicians do become academics (so do many scientists) and I don't see any problem 'sitting on my arse solving maths problems since thats what I did at high school'. I would enjoy that, but, careerwise I would probably want to balance: what I enjoy vs salary.

clearly you didn't quote me correctly. what i said before was :
"isn't that just sitting on ur ass and solving equations? would u get paid much for that?"
NOT
"sitting on my arse solving maths problems since..."
next time you decide to quote me in order to degrade me online, do it with a little discretion 

I wasn't degrading you!

I have looked at a lot of your responses and you tend to want to flare up some argument!

[humph]

I tried to ask one of my tutors this, but didn't get a proper answer...

How do you actually research maths. Like how do you have breakthroughs and stuff. I've always been curious about this.

A lot of it involves proving conjectures. E.g. a mathematician may read some papers about prime numbers and conjecture that there are more prime numbers of the form than of the form (a conjecture is a statement that is believed to be true but is unproven). Then another mathematician will come along and apply some fancy techniques of complex analysis in order to prove this conjecture. At the end they might conjecture something else, and in ten years time another mathematician might come along and write a paper where they prove that result.

So yeah, a lot of it is proving results that people believe to be true but don't know how to prove yet. In order to prove these conjectures, you often have to combine lots of different areas of mathematics and difficult results about the properties of certain functions or subsets of integers, for example.

(This is all based on stuff I'm reading about right now - google "Prime Number Races" to read an interesting paper on prime numbers in arithmetic progressions.)

[/0]

As a mathematician would your main income come from one (or more) of the following:
1. Commissions to solve problems
2. Lecturing
3. Just getting paid for being there and solving anything which ammuses you

[Noblesse]

Accounting and Finance

[AppleXY]

Accounting and Finance

+1. Hopefully at Uni Melb

Will probably do a postgrad study of econ afterwards, for interest and increasing opportunities available.

[zzdfa]

As a mathematician would your main income come from one (or more) of the following:
1. Commissions to solve problems
2. Lecturing
3. Just getting paid for being there and solving anything which ammuses you

As with any other academic (i think)
2&3, but you need to do enough research before you get a permanent position.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenure

[Collin Li]

Economics, Finance, Chemical Engineering

[squance]

Chemical Engineering

[methodsboy]

A lot of mathematicians do become academics (so do many scientists) and I don't see any problem 'sitting on my arse solving maths problems since thats what I did at high school'. I would enjoy that, but, careerwise I would probably want to balance: what I enjoy vs salary.

clearly you didn't quote me correctly. what i said before was :
"isn't that just sitting on ur ass and solving equations? would u get paid much for that?"
NOT
"sitting on my arse solving maths problems since..."
next time you decide to quote me in order to degrade me online, do it with a little discretion 

omg, maybe he is wasnt quoting you, idiot!!! read the thread carefully. Where was he trying to "degrade" you???

what ever floats your boat kiddo...

[methodsboy]

Guys check out www.wikipedia.org/facesitting

is this fat porn?