• Question: What is the hardest maths equation you've tried to solve and why?

    Asked by Miss Science to Deborah, Euan, Maheen, Rob, Stu on 13 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Maheen Siddiqui

      Maheen Siddiqui answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      For my undergraduate project (in Maths), I opted to do a project about this equation called the “Sine-Gordon” equation. Its a pretty difficult equation to solve and took around 60 pages!

    • Photo: Rob Stanley

      Rob Stanley answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      It was probably something in my Maths degree, where a teacher had set a very hard problem (that I probably failed to solve as I wasn’t the brightest student!). But at least it would’ve had an answer.

      The problem with using maths in your job is that I’m the first one to try and solve these problems. So I don’t know if there is an easy solution, or whether the tricks and formulas I know will help. So although the equations might look easier, I’ll often have to sit and work them out for a few hours or days!

    • Photo: Deborah Prunty

      Deborah Prunty answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      I’m not very good at maths. I can do the things I use all the time, but things like integration and differentiation I really struggle with. It doesn’t help that I’m dyslexic and struggle with swapping numbers at times!

    • Photo: Euan Allen

      Euan Allen answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Miss Science,

      The Schrödinger equation is almost certainly the hardest thing I’ve had to solve. It’s the equation that describes everything that occurs in quantum mechanics, and is named after a famous Nobel prize winning Austrian scientist called Erwin Schrödinger.

      I spent nearly a whole year at university being taught and trying to understand how to solve this equation! It’s particularly difficult because it is used in so many different situations, so you really have to understand every part of the equation.

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