# How to improve “Why's Applied Math 'more straightforward' than Pure Math?”

Please, how can I revise or improve my question? My request is here. Thank you all.

I tried my best to avoid an "'opinion-based' question' by sticking to the advice underneath. But why was my question still closed? My question is about specific expertise because I'll be thankful for the experts' advice here and I quoted those Cambridge math undergrads. But all these quotes are too short for me to understand. Thus, please expand?

The close reason for primarily-opinion based questions is relevant here (emphasis added).

Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise.

Answers to a question about learning strategy involve opinions to a much higher degree than evaluation of an integral, but they can be based on expert experience, too.

• For the question to be clear we would first need to agree on the definitions of what is pure as opposed to applied math. I don't see that happening. The department I work at is, most likely, not mainstream, because here automata theory, cryptography and coding theory are considered to be pure math, but probability and PDEs are applied math. All depending on random decisions made in the past based on who got interested in which topic. Elsewhere the opposite may hold. This is just one of the problems your question has. (As a moderator I should not rule on the on-topicness of your question.) – Jyrki Lahtonen Jan 19 '15 at 8:42
• Whether harder, less hard, about the same, or incomparable is very much context-dependent. Sometimes, certain undergraduate applied courses are mathematically less hard than "pure" courses because the target population is mixed, and includes students in other disciplines who have less mathematical experience. – André Nicolas Jan 20 '15 at 4:12
• – Joel Reyes Noche Jan 21 '15 at 0:58

• @PedroTamaroff sorry. i'm a bit fazed. but some opinion questions are allowed right, like those tagged advice? I revised my question overhead. I stuck to the requirements so my question is not 'primarily opinion-based'? – Analysis JD Jan 19 '15 at 4:17