Laptop or iPad for Uni?

[GrumpyOldBag]

DS's laptop is dying. He uses it a lot - mainly for watching football matches.

I am thinking of getting a new one myself so he could have my old one when he starts Uni - but wondered whether an iPad might be more useful to him recreationally?

Will he need a laptop for his studies? He's reading Maths.

[user7214743615]

If he's studying maths he's unlikely to be typing assignments.

Unfortunately you are very out of date - a bit worrying, for a maths teacher.

Most maths courses have "employability skills" modules that involve giving presentations, writing reports etc.

It is also common for computer labs to have written reports. Modules involving programming may well require that assignments are written up too.

Most/many students will do a final year project, too.

Agree that most resources are accessible electronically - and this access is much more convenient on a computer than on an iPad. Many students have both and carry around the iPad (Pro) for taking notes in lectures, checking resources on the VLE, looking up things during the day.

Writing maths on a laptop is one of the most annoying things known to man so it seems bizarre that they would be expected to do this.

Have you seriously never heard of TeX/LaTeX?

[noblegiraffe]

Can someone please tell me what these maths essays are about? I'm fascinated. I did 4 years of university maths without a single essay. Did a bit of Matlab and Maple but that's programming, not essay-writing. @MsAwesomeDragon was posting the other day that she didn't write any essays either, so I don't think it's just me!

'Which is better, Pi or Tau?
'Gauss: Why was he such a git?'
'Women and why they had to pretend to be men to get ahead in maths'

That sort of thing??

[noblegiraffe]

Yes I've heard of LaTeX. Still fiddlier than pen and paper.

So maths degrees are moving away from the actual doing of maths then?

[curlylocks101]

I had a netbook for uni (with a keyboard and mouse to use with it in my flat), which was much more comfortable than hunching over a laptop all the time. If he's doing Maths I imagine he'll need a full sized screen though? My set up at work, where I do a lot of stats-based work, is a laptop with another screen - so two screens - I find it really useful and wish I'd bought cheap screen at uni!

[VisitorFromAlphaStation]

Laptop as he'll have to install LaTeX for the typing of formulas. You may want to check out Miktex and Texmaker as well as Mathematica. The tablet (perhaps Android) might be an addition as there are quite a few good maths apps. An ipad is quite expensive but an Android tablet doesn't have to be excruciatingly expensive (albeit somewhat greater risk for rogue apps). You'll probably end up buying both a laptop and a tablet...

[VisitorFromAlphaStation]

We had to do all writing in LaTeX and pen and paper was not allowed for anything that was handed in to the tutors (no crummy handwriting allowed). It's not really essays but perhaps writing up a proof of something and hand it in, as part of the examination.

[VisitorFromAlphaStation]

You can attach a full screen and keyboard to a laptop, no problem. Second hand keyboards and screens are sold at bargain prices.

[Scoobydoobydont]

Sounds like he needs a laptop for maths.

However, others disregarding iPads for uni have are right but have obviously never used an iPad Pro. They are an amazing tool for typing, making notes, marking up drawings/documents etc

[Haffdonga]

DS has both and is doing a science degree with a lot of maths included. He says he couldn't have managed without his laptop and he hardly even uses his ipad anymore.

[LorLorr2]

Laptop without question!!
You can get smaller screens than the usual size if he's concerned with portability, they don't have to be bulky.

[user7214743615]

So maths degrees are moving away from the actual doing of maths then?

As a research mathematician, I spend a lot of my (research) time working on a computer. Does working on a computer mean I'm not doing actual maths, despite publishing research papers in maths journals?

I forgot to mention above: students also need to use Python/Matlab/Mathematica/Maple/R etc for numerical solutions and statistics. The software is usually available via university licenses (where licenses) are needed.

Of course a significant fraction of maths degrees are based on analytic pen and paper work. But we have moved into the twenty-first century even for this: lectures tend to be videoed, lecturers do extra worked examples Khan Academy style, some assessments are e-assessments (basic calculus or linear algebra) etc etc.

And nobody wrote "essay" above: they wrote "report", "project" or "dissertation". Reports tend to be write ups of programming to solve problems, or of the use of R for stats work. "Projects" and "dissertations" are mini research papers.

[noblegiraffe]

And nobody wrote "essay" above: they wrote "report", "project" or "dissertation"

User, you missed this bit from a pp

DS has just graduated in maths. There was a compulsory "essay" module,

[Piglet208]

I can tell you that my son's final project in his maths degree was on chaos theory and it involved a full literary review, introduction, conclusion etc as well as the calculations that prove the theory. Other units also required written assignments but I'm not sure all the titles( one was philosophy of maths). Lots of the units involved assignments that were calculation based but were also done on the laptop. Some units obviously had final exams.

[user7214743615]

And the fact that people twenty or thirty years ago didn't have to type up reports or dissertations is a reflection of how much the world has changed - and how important soft skills are.

Many people on here advise students who are weak at writing to do maths degrees, on the grounds they won't have to do any writing. I would strongly encourage such students to look carefully at Maths courses.

[user7214743615]

Cambridge has something at part III called an "essay". It is a literature review - with strong students doing some original research at the end.

[noblegiraffe]

Thinking about it, no, I don't consider spending time working at a computer typing stuff in LaTeX or running reports 'doing maths', tbh I was never a big fan of statistics, always thought it should be part of humanities instead of maths and running a program is just getting a computer to do the maths for you.

Sorry OP, way off topic. However I think the advice from the thread mostly says laptop anyway. :)

[scaryclown]

Ask the student it support people. I would always recommend a chrmebook for carry around as it's cheap and bug free and effective, but I haven't used the maths formula apps. The University may have a preference for if it's on word or if other versions are OK too.
If the students need a particular platform for coding, modelling etc that might also feature in the decision...

[BikeRunSki]

And the fact that people twenty or thirty years ago didn't have to type up reports or dissertations is a reflection of how much the world has changed - and how important soft skills are.

I started my degree 28 yrs ago, and all my essays, field reports (Geology), most assignments and my dissertation were typed. Either by me, or long stuff I paid to have typed up persuaded my mum to do it. You had to book a PC in the uni library for up to 2 hrs at a time, then send it off to be printed. The only notable exception was lab reports (Physics) , possibly because it was a PITA to do all the symbols.

This was the norm even then. I was mist impressed when I met DH abs he had a large, slow and chunky laptop! (1994, post grads).

[ErrolTheDragon]

running a program is just getting a computer to do the maths for you.

Ah, but what about writing the code to get the computer do do the maths for you? a computer really only does simple arithmetic, though of course there are libraries layered on top to do standard maths.

Some proofs nowadays are performed computationally rather than by paper and pencil analysis, aren't they? (I'm not a mathematician, but I do read New Scientist). Probably not too relevant to undergrads and anyway, serious number crunching would be on uni servers, probably linux.

[noblegiraffe]

The Four Colour Theorem which states any map can be coloured so that adjacent sections on the map are different colours using a maximum of four colours was proved by a computer (brute force checking of over a thousand maps) and mathematicians are still suspicious of it

Writing code is programming. Deciding what the code needs to do could possibly be maths.

[kirsty75005]

@noblegiraffe. I'd say that the four colour theorem was proved by a mathematician who used a computer programme for part of the proof. If I remember rightly, the conceptually difficult part of the proof was done by a mathematician, who reduced the question to a huge calculation, which was then done by a machine. I'm not aware of any case of a proof (as opposed to a calculation which we know how to do provided we have enough computer power) being produced by a machine, but I'm willing to be corrected.

I wouldn't say that mathematicians are suspicious of it - the consensus amongst my colleagues is that it's had more rigourous checking than 99% of peer reviewed papers. There was a big argument between the mathematician who did it and the journal who was supposed to publish about how the thing should be presented to the community, but that's not the same thing.

[GeorgeTheHamster]

It wasn't an essay that he did for A level (maths and further maths with ocr, no idea which module). But it was described as coursework and he printed it from his laptop. Something to do with cupcake cases, IIRC?

[GeorgeTheHamster]

@noblegiraffe - it was coursework for DEs

[user7214743615]

I don't consider spending time working at a computer typing stuff in LaTeX or running reports 'doing maths', tbh

Ok, so I'm not a mathematician, despite being a professor in maths.

I type my papers writing down my thoughts as I go; I write my proofs in LaTeX as I go along (instead of writing them on pen and paper, before typing them) etc etc.

Always glad to be corrected and told I'm not doing proper maths by somebody who is not a mathematician.

[user7214743615]

Also bear in mind that only a fraction of the research in UK maths departments is "pure mathematics" anyhow. Leaving aside whether numerical proofs have a role in pure mathematics, maths departments do applied mathematics, mathematical biology, mathematical physics, statistics, financial mathematics, data science, operational research, engineering mathematics etc. Many of these involve coding. I'm sure researchers in these areas would love to be told that they are somehow not doing proper maths just because they spent time working on a computer.