> it's a point to be made. The rough equivalent in my field would
> be discussing the differences between spectra expected from
> bremsstrahlung and synchrotron emissions from an astrophysical plasma,
> which I learned (though don't necessarily remember) in an astro. class
I dunno. I think that set theory has wider applications than that.
Everybody in my frosh math course learned the definitions of closed,
compact, and open sets. It's fresher in my mind after taking analysis
(and perhaps I'm just saying this to convince myself that it's useful
for a CS major to take this course). I would think that any
mathematically rigorous education (regardless of the eventual major)
would talk about these things at some point because of their
importance in probability and the philisophical underpinnings of math.
While I don't know enough about astronomy to make an analogy, I think
it would be more like asking a question (perhaps slightly hard-core)
about relativity, which is like a basement level for physics. It
might be hard, but it's important because everything else is built
upon that.
-Jordan