<p>Would it be a bad idea to major in math if this is true? I enjoy doing math whenever trig is not involved. Whenever I see a sin or cot or whatever, it just angers me haha. (note- i’m only currently up to some calculus stuff like derivatives/integration… also note that in my grade, I am the ‘go to’ guy for math stuff. I’m the only junior in calculus)</p>
<p>So would pursuing a major in math not be wise if I dislike trig with the biggest passion?</p>
<p>Hi there, my view is that if you hate trig but like mathematics and are truly fit for a math major, the reason you hate it should be that you haven’t attained a high enough understanding. When you stop thinking of things as a bunch of miscellaneous identities and see the motivation behind how they are developed and, hopefully, generalized, you appreciate them much more. These things are not illogical or messy concepts, they are things people thought of as beautiful leaps in perspective. </p>
<p>A maths major involves some logic and formalisms of communication (people call this “proof-writing”). You’ll have to get used to that if you want to do it, and that can be a hurdle. Also, many decide they are more intuitive beings, and don’t feel like going through the effort. It really depends. Liking and being excellent at calculus can mean you’ll like a lot of the higher math classes that are more general versions of calculus. But it also could mean you could like physics, because higher level physics is mathematically intense, and real physics is mathematically savage.</p>
<p>Like Mathboy said sometimes people gets frustrated or angered at stuff they do not understand very well. I did my undergraduate degree in Physics and I can tell you once you understand the logic of a problem and truly understand the concepts behind all that math and physics you will feel like you understand how the world really works. I found out that my undergraduate degree in Physics was the most rewarding knowledge I got in college. Higher levels physics my friend is one of the most math intensive and savage fields out there.
Just disliking trig is not gonna be a dealbreaker. You will eventually understand it and it will become second nature to you.</p>
<p>Trig is often presented very poorly early on. There is a strong emphasis on doing arithmetic with trig, which can irritate even those - nay, especially those - most fit for math.</p>
<p>You’ll see a lot of trig in a math degree, but it’s not the same kind of thing. Trig goes from being some silly thing you use to do arithmetic on triangles and the unit circle to something, as was said before, worthy of study in its own right.</p>
<p>^ I agree all i did in my math class was soh-cah-toa. We were just solving very basic trig problems and had no knowledge has to how they are derived. I myself do not like trig but it was just because i do not have a strong background in it. Not everyone likes all aspects of math.</p>
<p>You’ll get over trig identities eventually. There an…integral 
part of calculus.</p>
<p>That said, once you get out of the calculus sequence (which isn’t really math anyways) you won’t see trig identities as intensively, but they’ll still be around. Complex planes, fourier analysis, etc.</p>