Sort of a delayed rant, because my last final was on Friday, but still...
I'm a grad student in atmospheric science (meteorology+climatology+etc), having done my undergrad in physics. It's my second semester, and I just finished Atmospheric Dynamics, which is about the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere, as well as Atmospheric Chemistry.
The symbols for variables are really confusing. p (pressure) and ρ (density) occur in the same equation all the time. One example is that the pressure gradient force, which makes the wind blow, is 1/ρ ∂p/∂x (likewise for y, z). Derivatives are all pronounced d-something-d-variable, but they can be D/Dx (material derivative, aka total derivative following wind flow), d/dx (total derivative), or ∂/∂x (partial derivative, and local derivative i.e. change in something at a specific location, not following the wind). I use x as the variable here but it could easily be any of the other dimensions, or any of the other scalar variables like pressure, temperature or density. Oh and let's not forget R, which can be either the universal gas constant 8.314 J/(mol*K) we all know and love, or the specific gas constant which is the real R divided by the molar mass of whatever fluid or mixture thereof you're dealing with, e.g. R = 287 J/(kg*K) for air. Like it would be so much more complicated to just put the molar mass M in the goddamn equation where it belongs (R(specific) --> R/M) where R is only the universal gas constant! I missed a bunch of points on my atoms. chem. midterm for this.
Of course there's also the fact that I didn't have any fluid mechanics as an undergrad - it wasn't even offered at the good but small college I went to. Turns out it's really hard. There are lots of crazy differential equations, especially when you're dealing with an enormous, rotating, compressible system like the atmosphere. Even with many simplifying assumptions like pretending that the atmosphere is actually incompressible as if it were the ocean, most of the problems start out sounding reasonable, midway through go something like "Now we have five partial differential equations in five unknowns. We can reduce them to one [really absurd] differential equation in one unknown if we make a bunch more simplifying assumptions..." and then you assume a solution of the form (new variable that we made up to deal with this equation) = Ae^(i*(other stuff)), and finally some general but very simplified trait of weather systems pops out. Did I mention that my last diff eq class was 6 or 7 years ago, and I wasn't ever really very good at it?
That said it's all still really cool, and the atmosphere is definitely one of the most complex systems you can still approach in a quantitative way, with the help of lots of computing power. Contrast biology, for instance, which is complex enough that math isn't all that useful as a tool for most applications. If I keep going it will turn into a rave so I'll stop here.
I'm a grad student in atmospheric science (meteorology+climatology+etc), having done my undergrad in physics. It's my second semester, and I just finished Atmospheric Dynamics, which is about the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere, as well as Atmospheric Chemistry.
The symbols for variables are really confusing. p (pressure) and ρ (density) occur in the same equation all the time. One example is that the pressure gradient force, which makes the wind blow, is 1/ρ ∂p/∂x (likewise for y, z). Derivatives are all pronounced d-something-d-variable, but they can be D/Dx (material derivative, aka total derivative following wind flow), d/dx (total derivative), or ∂/∂x (partial derivative, and local derivative i.e. change in something at a specific location, not following the wind). I use x as the variable here but it could easily be any of the other dimensions, or any of the other scalar variables like pressure, temperature or density. Oh and let's not forget R, which can be either the universal gas constant 8.314 J/(mol*K) we all know and love, or the specific gas constant which is the real R divided by the molar mass of whatever fluid or mixture thereof you're dealing with, e.g. R = 287 J/(kg*K) for air. Like it would be so much more complicated to just put the molar mass M in the goddamn equation where it belongs (R(specific) --> R/M) where R is only the universal gas constant! I missed a bunch of points on my atoms. chem. midterm for this.
Of course there's also the fact that I didn't have any fluid mechanics as an undergrad - it wasn't even offered at the good but small college I went to. Turns out it's really hard. There are lots of crazy differential equations, especially when you're dealing with an enormous, rotating, compressible system like the atmosphere. Even with many simplifying assumptions like pretending that the atmosphere is actually incompressible as if it were the ocean, most of the problems start out sounding reasonable, midway through go something like "Now we have five partial differential equations in five unknowns. We can reduce them to one [really absurd] differential equation in one unknown if we make a bunch more simplifying assumptions..." and then you assume a solution of the form (new variable that we made up to deal with this equation) = Ae^(i*(other stuff)), and finally some general but very simplified trait of weather systems pops out. Did I mention that my last diff eq class was 6 or 7 years ago, and I wasn't ever really very good at it?
That said it's all still really cool, and the atmosphere is definitely one of the most complex systems you can still approach in a quantitative way, with the help of lots of computing power. Contrast biology, for instance, which is complex enough that math isn't all that useful as a tool for most applications. If I keep going it will turn into a rave so I'll stop here.
on the weekend 
