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  3. I wish to meet all of the people who say "math is useless to programmers"

I wish to meet all of the people who say "math is useless to programmers"

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  • D den2k88

    And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

    GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

    J Offline
    J Offline
    Jorgen Andersson
    wrote on last edited by
    #15

    It will depend on what you work with. But I think people that are bad at maths probably make bad programmers, since logics is so important.

    Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

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    • D den2k88

      And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

      GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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      F Offline
      Fueled By Decaff
      wrote on last edited by
      #16

      Ooh, signal processing? That is cool. Every day is a learning day... recently I had to use Welford standard deviation to calculate a running standard deviation. I did not even know that was possible without storing all of the numbers.

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      • D den2k88

        Rich Leyshon wrote:

        Subtract 2AB from each side: B^2 - AB = 2B^2 -2AB

        Issue found :D I'm doing a lot of these mistakes anyway.

        GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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        jsc42
        wrote on last edited by
        #17

        Easier if you say if (B^2 - AB) = 2*(B^2 - AB) then given B^2 = AB you have 1 * (0) = 2 * (0) giving 0 = 0

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        • D den2k88

          Rich Leyshon wrote:

          Subtract 2AB from each side: B^2 - AB = 2B^2 -2AB

          Issue found :D I'm doing a lot of these mistakes anyway.

          GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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          R Offline
          Rich Leyshon
          wrote on last edited by
          #18

          That's not a mistake ...

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          • R Rich Leyshon

            That's not a mistake ...

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            den2k88
            wrote on last edited by
            #19

            Yep, I told you I was making a lot of mistakes? I also added a proof.

            GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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            • F Fueled By Decaff

              Ooh, signal processing? That is cool. Every day is a learning day... recently I had to use Welford standard deviation to calculate a running standard deviation. I did not even know that was possible without storing all of the numbers.

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              D Offline
              den2k88
              wrote on last edited by
              #20

              Brushless motor control, which is signal processing (especially when factoring in PWM sinusoids and EM emission control).

              GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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              • M Maximilien

                Every time I'm asked to do some math, I always start at 1+1 and work my way from there. I always like math at school, got good grades even if I was never really good at it, (or felt like it). Anecdotal, I crapped a test on Fourier Transform in one of our Theoretical Computer Science course, We had to do something with it to reduce some equations, but I indexed one of the sequence at 1 instead of 0, it never converged. :rolleyes:

                CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair

                Richard DeemingR Offline
                Richard DeemingR Offline
                Richard Deeming
                wrote on last edited by
                #21

                Maximilien wrote:

                I always start at 1+1 and work my way from there

                How hard could that possibly be? The Universe of Discourse : 1+1=2[^] :laugh:


                "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined" - Homer

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                • D den2k88

                  And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                  GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                  GuyThiebaut
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #22

                  I think a lot of the time maths is no necessary in much of what we do as developers, but having a mind that is good at maths does seem to make people better developers. Perhaps it's something to do with being able to work with abstractions or recognise logical patterns. P.S. I do not have a naturally good mathematical mind.

                  “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

                  ― Christopher Hitchens

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                  • D den2k88

                    And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                    GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                    dandy72
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #23

                    It all depends on the field in which you end up. I think all programmers (who do it as a full-time job) end up acquiring expertise in a domain that is not, strictly speaking, related at all to programming. Mathematics would be one of those domains. Personally, I got shafted when I was accepted to university, provided I took a chemistry course, which they had decided was a prerequisite for computer science - chemistry was the only science course I did not take while in high school. To make a long story short, the schedule for that chemistry course conflicted with my other courses, and neither teachers nor university administration gave a damn; I dropped out during the first semester and went to college for 3 years instead. Decades later, I've never had a job that required any sort of chemistry, and I certainly don't feel like I've missed out on anything.

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                    • R Rich Leyshon

                      Since I can't figure out superscripting, please read B^2 as B squared ... Let A = B Multiply both sides by B: AB = B^2 Add B^2 to each side: AB + B^2 = 2B^2 Subtract 2AB from each side: B^2 - AB = 2B^2 -2AB (B^2 - AB ) = 2*(B^2 - AB) 1 = 2 QED.

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                      D Offline
                      David Crow
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #24

                      Rich Leyshon wrote:

                      Since I can't figure out superscripting, please read B^2 as B squared ...

                      Surround with <sup></sup> like: B2

                      "One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson

                      "Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons

                      "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles

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                      • D David Crow

                        Rich Leyshon wrote:

                        Since I can't figure out superscripting, please read B^2 as B squared ...

                        Surround with <sup></sup> like: B2

                        "One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson

                        "Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons

                        "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles

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                        R Offline
                        Rich Leyshon
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #25

                        Makes sense, perhaps I should have tried that ... :-O

                        1 Reply Last reply
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                        • D den2k88

                          And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                          GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

                          Sander RosselS Offline
                          Sander RosselS Offline
                          Sander Rossel
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #26

                          I wish to meet all of the people who say "soil research is useless to programmers." My client just called me and told me that their indicative beet cyst nematode research does not display the eggs per larva per 100 ml correctly. Also, if I can create a report showing yearly infections of rostochiensis, pallida, or both. Meloidogyne is going pretty well though.

                          Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

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                          • D den2k88

                            And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                            GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                            obermd
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #27

                            As a business programmer I don't use a lot of math in my code, but I do have to understand a lot of math so I can design the appropriate algorithms for the problems I'm solving.

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                            • D den2k88

                              And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                              GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                              J Offline
                              Jalapeno Bob
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #28

                              Years ago, in the 1980s, and in a land far, far away, New Jersey, I developed a radar display on a PC for the FAA. Those were the days of the '286 and they were s-l-o-w and floating point was an unavailable hardware option. In order to keep up and display the data in a circle, I had to re-derive the standard SIN, COS, and TAN functions to recognize 0 degrees as the positive Y-axis instead of the traditional positive X-axis. Or, to put it succinctly, how well do you understand trigonometry and integer processing?

                              __________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock

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                              • D den2k88

                                And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                                GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                                R Offline
                                RobertSF
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #29

                                I would never say math is useless, but when people find out I write software, a frequent reaction is, "Wow, you must be really good at math." I think I'm above average in numeracy, but I sort of maxed out at calculus, so no, I'm not really good at math, but this is a common misconception. So I explain that, while developing some types of software requires very high math skills, other skills are more universal. For example, being able to anticipate how your users will use your software is very important regardless of the type of software.

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                                • D den2k88

                                  And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                                  GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                                  M Offline
                                  Mycroft Holmes
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #30

                                  I ended up working for a bank, and they have some really weird calculation structures. Whenever anything more than basic maths was required I pointed them a the quants who live in that space. In 30+ years of building business solutions I never required any of the mentioned maths. What the bloody hell have they got you doing and why?

                                  Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP

                                  D 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • D den2k88

                                    And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                                    GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                                    Davyd McColl
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #31

                                    I wouldn't say "math is useless to programmers" - rather "math is of little significance to a large number of programmers, especially those doing line of business stuff and e-commerce. I have zero use for laplace transforms or matrices or trig. I have minimal use for even basic algebra 95% of the time. Math is a tool - like all tools, it has jobs it's fit for and jobs it's less fit for.

                                    ------------------------------------------------ If you say that getting the money is the most important thing You will spend your life completely wasting your time You will be doing things you don't like doing In order to go on living That is, to go on doing things you don't like doing Which is stupid. - Alan Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXTZM\_uPMY

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                                    • D den2k88

                                      And give them a day of my current job, for which I am rewieving trigonometry, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, studying Clarke's and Park's transforms and generaly banging my head against the whole mathematics syllabus I alread beaten into submission during my Engineering student days (which are long gone and the knowledge faded).

                                      GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                                      L Offline
                                      Lorenzo Bertolino
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #32

                                      Surely not useless but I don't think it deserves the emphasis it has, when I needed FFTs I learnt them, I never had a need for Laplace so I don't know it, I remember some basic trigonometry and I never had a need for something remotely as "advanced" as what we did in school. School taught me to learn, what I learnt is largely irrelevant to me now. If I could go back and chose to not have some math classes, I would do it

                                      D 1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • J Jalapeno Bob

                                        Years ago, in the 1980s, and in a land far, far away, New Jersey, I developed a radar display on a PC for the FAA. Those were the days of the '286 and they were s-l-o-w and floating point was an unavailable hardware option. In order to keep up and display the data in a circle, I had to re-derive the standard SIN, COS, and TAN functions to recognize 0 degrees as the positive Y-axis instead of the traditional positive X-axis. Or, to put it succinctly, how well do you understand trigonometry and integer processing?

                                        __________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock

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                                        D Offline
                                        den2k88
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #33

                                        I also had to re-derive sin, cos and tan functions to properly apply a vectorial control in real time... multiple times for different projects :D from simple "closest value in LUT" to "linear interpolation between adjacent values".

                                        GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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                                        • M Mycroft Holmes

                                          I ended up working for a bank, and they have some really weird calculation structures. Whenever anything more than basic maths was required I pointed them a the quants who live in that space. In 30+ years of building business solutions I never required any of the mentioned maths. What the bloody hell have they got you doing and why?

                                          Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP

                                          D Offline
                                          D Offline
                                          den2k88
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #34

                                          Motor control. If you want to have a brushless DC motor running you have to pilot 3 phases with adequate currents - and we can't use the standard 6 point drive because it is noisy.

                                          GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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