Department of Mathematics and Science

This department offers courses in the basic sciences: physics, chemistry and mathematics. All midshipmen take these courses, generally during their first two years. In the Fourth Class year, mathematics and science courses comprise approximately 40 percent of the academic program. The courses are designed to teach the fundamental concepts that midshipmen will use in later courses in the Engineering and the Marine Transportation curriculums. The department also provides a strong science background required of all educated people in our world of high technology.

All midshipmen are required to take two terms of Physics and one term of General Chemistry. Both courses have a strong laboratory component so that midshipmen can experience the experimental side of science regardless of major. The department maintains general science laboratories that incorporate the recent technologies of microelectronics, lasers and computers. State of the art equipment using PC-based data acquisition is used in the recently constructed nuclear lab and the new Engineering Chemistry lab. The department is also responsible for the operation of the Class of '81 Astronomical Observatory. The observatory as well as laboratories and offices are located in the Fulton/Gibbs building.

All midshipmen take two terms of Calculus. In addition, Marine Transportation, Maritime Operations and Technology, and Logistics and Intermodal Transportation students take one term of Probability and Statistics; Marine Engineering students take one term of Engineering Mathematics; Marine Engineering Systems students take two terms of Engineering Mathematics; and the Marine Engineering and Shipyard Management students take one term of Engineering Mathematics and two terms of Quantitative Methods.

Because mathematics is so important to nearly every area of study at the Academy, all entering midshipmen take an examination administered by the department. Those students who are found to be weak in math are placed in either College Mathematics or an extended Calculus 1 course. College Mathematics is designed to improve their skills in algebra and trigonometry and the extended Calculus 1 provides them with an extra hour of math instruction per week.

The physics and chemistry courses are rigorous. The physics course is a calculus-based course and is taken concurrently with Calculus. Students majoring in Marine Engineering, Marine Engineering Systems and Marine Engineering and Shipyard Management take an Engineering Chemistry course in their Second Class Year.

The department also offers electives that, in addition to providing advanced study, reflect some of the scholarly and research efforts of the faculty. Examples of such electives are Environmental Science, Environmental Chemistry, Advanced Engineering Math, Astronomy, Chemistry of Hazardous Materials, Atomic Physics, and Nuclear Physics. Marine Engineering and Marine Engineering Systems majors are required to take one of our electives from an approved list and some electives are required as part of the Marine Engineering Systems minor tracks.

The Nuclear Engineering minor track is one of the department's oldest and most successful programs, dating back to the 1960s, when the Academy trained personnel for America's first nuclear merchant ship, the SAVANNAH. Presently, midshipmen taking this sequence find employment opportunities in the nuclear power industry or enlist in the navy's nuclear service. The Atomic and Nuclear Physics courses are given by the Mathematics and Science Department, while the Nuclear Engineering courses, which follow, are given by the Engineering Department.