Bachelor of Science in Mathematics - Pure Mathematics Hawaii Pacific University

Program Description

Mathematics has been around since antiquity and has fascinated and stimulated creative and logical thought for millennia. It is ubiquitous in nature and science and is rich in applications to the real world. Many mathematicians speak of the beauty of mathematics as a language for describing the universe. However, mathematics is not only a science; it is also an art. Although mathematicians are perceived as straight-laced, we all feel emotion when we think of math in terms of its fundamental nature, its omniscience, its art, and its science. To do pure math – math with no proposed application to any other field – is to get to the very heart of things. Math research is the discovery of new mathematical ideas, definitions, and theorems. Boolean algebra (George Boole, 1854) was thought to be of no value at the time of its discovery. It was rediscovered a hundred years later and now serves as the basis of modern computation and digital logic. Calculus, now a common mathematical system, did not exist four hundred years ago. And although it was discovered four centuries earlier, we still find new uses for it today! The Pure Math concentration lends itself to the advanced study of mathematics in graduate school. Students attending graduate school in math may become professors, researchers in national labs, or consultants. This concentration focuses more heavily on abstract mathematical thought and logic, and produces students who are not only proficient in reading and writing proofs, but are strong critical thinkers and problem solvers as well

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