Third Year Math(s) (1 Viewer)

[Obvious]

I'm planning on taking MATH3977 (Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Dynamics) and MATH3968 (Differential Geometry) next semester, having previously studied:
- MATH1001 to MATH1004
- MATH2961
- MATH2962
- MATH2969

According to the information on the relevant pages I seem to satisfy the requirements for both subjects, although I wouldn't mind some first or second-hand opinions on their relative difficulty, and any possible gaps in my knowledge that I should cover beforehand.

I don't want to constrain the range of answers since there probably won't be many, so if you have any relevant advice feel free to share it .

 

[miscmantheman]

Did you not do the second year PDE course? There's a close relationship between PDEs and calculus of variations. The Hamilton–Jacobi equation is a PDE for example. You should be ok though, although it would probably be a good idea to study up on some PDE material on the holidays. I assume you're also pretty familiar with Newtonian mechanics.

 

[seanieg89]

Yeah seconded, if the course hasn't changed much you will cover all necessary PDE theory in the course itself, but it is good to be familiar with the basics beforehand so you don't get bogged down when using them in more complex ways.

The courses are both of comparable difficulty (imo), although L&H dynamics will probably involve more lengthy computations. It is largely up to the instructor how difficult the DG course will be, doing geometry on abstract manifolds can be a little tricky to wrap your head around at first and how much of this is done varies in each iteration of the course.