Back to school ...

Douglas Troy

If you get into a Science related field, doing software development (e.g., working for NASA, JPL, Etc...) and/or Video Game development, Search Engine company (e.g., Yahoo!, Google) then you'll find you'll use Algebra, Trigonometry, Calc, etc... heavily. As others have already said, it all depends on the project you're working on ...

Chris Maunder

It's not the "how do I solve really hard equations" bit of mathematics that's so important, it's the "how do I solve really difficult problems using in a logical, precise and rigourous method" that's important. Mathematics doesn't teach you facts, it teaches you how to find facts.

cheers, Chris Maunder

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Rohde

As others have said, it really depends on what field of Com. Sci you end up with. In my case (I'm at the moment doing my thesis on content-based image searching) I've needed to make use of both algebra and calc a lot.

FAULTLOG.TXT: File too large.

Nish Nishant

Chris Maunder wrote:

It's not the "how do I solve really hard equations" bit of mathematics that's so important, it's the "how do I solve really difficult problems using in a logical, precise and rigourous method" that's important. Mathematics doesn't teach you facts, it teaches you how to find facts.

Chris, your love affair with Mathematics is too well known for anyone to take your Math opinions as unbiased comments :-)

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Bassam Abdul Baki

Blasphemer. Math rules supreme. :)

"This perpetual motion machine she made is a joke. It just keeps going faster and faster. Lisa, get in here! In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" - Homer Simpson Web - Blog - RSS - Math - LinkedIn - BM

Pete OHanlon

Hear hear. As anybody who's done things like Applied and Advanced maths will testify. Solving the equation is easy;), as long as you can determine what the constituent parts are - anybody remember "gravity acting at a point on a slope"?

Arthur Dent - "That would explain it. All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's something big and sinister going on in the world." Slartibartfast - "No. That's perfectly normal paranoia. Everybody in the universe gets that." Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

Shog9 0

Xaverian wrote:

Wouldn't basic Algebra suffice?

Maybe. As Chris said, it's more about teaching you new ways of thinking than anything. I remember hardly anything specific about most of the maths i studied ten years or so ago, but the discipline required to analyze a problem, find a solution, prove that solution... that stuff sticks with you. And trust me, it shows in your work. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from learning by rule and by rote, in which case it'll do you very little good and waste a lot of time. You get out what you put in... ;)

Paul Conrad

Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:

Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Russell Morris

Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:

Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.

I heard that, when he dies, he's giving his eyes to Stevie Wonder.

Paul Conrad

Chris Maunder wrote:

Mathematics doesn't teach you facts, it teaches you how to find facts

Well put :-D

Dustin Metzgar

Solving calculus equations is not too much different than solving programming problems. It's an excellent exercise of the mind. Calc IV at our school was a lot of vector math, which is really useful for 3D programming. I also had differential equations and discrete math. Discrete math is having more to do with logic and I think applies well to programming. Diff eq was just plain fun. Cryptography, probability, and graphics will all use your math skills. It's definitely useful.

Logifusion[^]
"This isn't a business. I've always thought of it as a source of cheap labor. Like a family."

Dan Neely

For CS I had to take through calc III, and either stats or linear equations. Calc IV was the unofficial name for ordinary differential equations. It was numbered in a way that would correspond to calc IV, but since only calc II was required they couldn't call it that. I needed calc IV for a planned double major, and since taking it precluded the lower level linear equations class (other option was 'prep for grad school' level) I took stats. One of the two biggest mistakes I made in scheduling, and one of the three classes I worried about failing. In all three cases the prof used an agressive curve to mask his failure to teach and I passed.

-- Rules of thumb should not be taken for the whole hand.

Marc Clifton

Chris Maunder wrote:

Mathematics doesn't teach you facts, it teaches you how to find facts.

But sadly, those that teach math teach so that students can pass tests, which means facts, not thinking. At least here in the US, where test scores drive funding. Marc

Thyme In The Country

People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith

Andy Brummer

Pretty much what everyone else has said. Mathematics is about learning how to solve problems and show that your solution is correct, however most of calculus is rote formula memorization unfortunately. It really depends on how your department is set up. I found that physics at that level is more about problem solving then the math is, but you need the math for physics. However, I do web app development and there really isn't that much mathematical style problem solving needed. Good UI design is probably the hardest part followed by a good business layer api design. UI design is hard in a completely different way, and the business stuff really isn't that hard, it just gets complicated some times.

Using the GridView is like trying to explain to someone else how to move a third person's hands in order to tie your shoelaces for you. -Chris Maunder

Matt Gerrans

Marc Clifton wrote:

But sadly,

That's what I thought too, but this recent article[^] is making me question that attitude...

Matt Gerrans

Matt Gerrans

I think this can be extended to your entire education. What's more important than what you learn is that you learn to think rationally, use the scientific method and learn how to do research. Most of what you learn in Computer Science (or any other field) doesn't directly apply to the work you end up doing. Many of the best software developers don't even have Computer Science degrees and I have interview plenty of people who did have Computer Science degrees who were quite clueless about software development. I don't know whether that is an indictment against Computer Science education or education in general. :) Actually, I think higher education is a good thing, it's more a problem that too many people are education-proof. :doh:

Matt Gerrans

Jorgen Sigvardsson

Xaverian wrote:

How much of this Calc I, II, III, and IV am I really going to use in the real world? Wouldn't basic Algebra suffice?

The mathematics I was taught in school have helped me solve problems on occasions. It's not like I need calculus for my day-to-day job, but it has indeed come in handy. Learn all you can! You'll never know if it's useful until you need it. :)

-- Nominated For Three Glemmys

Xaverian

Thank you everyone for your thoughts/comments/suggestions, your replies have given me a little more insight towards what I should do in order to achieve the goals I aspire to reach. I have found that I can circumvent the system without having to take a lot of math in order to finish out my schooling. However, and I should say, that it isn't without any math, just not 4 quarters of Calculus. I may just for grins take a Calculus class, but not two. Thank you again everyone - you've all been helpful :) Cheers, Xaverian P.S. Happy belated birthday CP :)

What we need is a patch for human stupidity - no really, I could use it!

peterchen

It's a sad day, when pupils consider school "the system", rather than an easy opportunity for learning.

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Gary R Wheeler

Marc Clifton wrote:

It was amusing to take a multispectral analysis algorithm created by the PhD's that took minutes to analyze the data and convert it into a lookup table that showed the customer exactly what they wanted to see in realtime.

Been there, done that. I worked on a 'government project' (cough, cough) once that performed "CMYK to RGB image transformation using a color gamut table" via interpolation. The original algorithm was from a kid's master's thesis. Implemented in software by the principal scientist, the algorithm took hours to perform the transformation. The customer had three hardware engineers working to design a board to implement the transformation. I spent two weeks with the algorithm, chucked the original software, and implemented my own. By the time I was done, my software solution could perform the transformation in less than 12 seconds. The algorithm reduced to a fairly small number of simple calculations based on values from lookup tables calculated at the very beginning. The hardware engineers ended up dumping their design and using my code as a model for their hardware.

Software Zen: delete this;

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