My Fourth Term at Cambridge

So what was this Michaelmas term (the first one of the year) like? If I were typical English I would certainly say how great, fantastic and exciting it was. Although I study here for more than one year, I still dare say that it was a fairly ordinary term.

Well, there is still one thing that I consider very unusual. It is the weather. Maybe you expect that I start to complain about chilly and cold English autumn but it is exactly the opposite. Last year when I arrived in Cambridge to begin my first term, I was absolutely impressed by the exceptional number of sunny and warm days without any rain. It was one of the best autumns ever according to the local people but certainly such good weather was just a loan which had to be paid back. After ten months, people were telling that they cannot remember more horrible summer.

This autumn is not so exceptional but I still insist that to experience better weather it is a good idea to visit East Anglia rather than to stay in the Czech Republic. Let me just remind you that Cambridge is one of the driest places in England and therefore I am pretty sure that students have much better conditions here that at one rival university which lies a few miles to the west of London. It is a pleasure for me to tell a reader who might be surrounded by a dense fog or falling snow that right now, we have a sunny day with temperature around 15 °C here (on the other hand, one can sometimes only dream about such weather during the summer in England).

However, Cambridge students do not always appreciate beautiful weather, especially if they have too much things to do. I am quite lucky because my subject can be studied satisfactorily just on a piece of paper (or later on a computer) without spending hours in laboratories which means that I can organise flexibly all my duties.

Now, let me clarify the structure of Cambridge course of mathematics which is slightly peculiar according to people who have already studied mathematics at other university. Subjects which concern about abstract mathematics and are studied very rigorously with all definitions and proofs are called pure. Those which aim is to study more specific mathematical methods and apply them to solve real problems are called applied. Initially, I thought that there was only one unique mathematics and I considered this classification too artificial. Yet now, after meeting various ways to regard mathematical problems and their very distinct character, I find it quite appropriate.

But still, why do they sometimes say that theoretical physics is an applied maths subject? Apart from that, there are also subjects about probability and statistics literally refused by both of the mentioned groups. Quite diplomatically, they are called applicable.

One disadvantage of the mathematics undergraduate course in Cambridge is that during our second year, the choice of subjects is still quite restricted. Then students spend least time with their most favourite subjects in which they are better. It seems to me that all lecturers conspired against me. Do you see any other explanation of the fact that all physics or applied mathematics subjects example sheets have only 10 problems to solve while a typical pure one has 17? As one of my friends said, maybe the only way to deal with it is to “come to know our enemies” and to look forward to another terms and years which will be definitely less pure and more dirty in my case.