I wish to meet all of the people who say "math is useless to programmers"
-
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
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
-
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
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.
-
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.
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
-
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
Makes sense, perhaps I should have tried that ... :-O
-
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
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
-
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
-
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
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
-
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
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.
-
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
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
-
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
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
-
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
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
-
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
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
-
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
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
-
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
I need things much more advanced than what I did in school. From when I analyzed images in real time to find anomalies to when I wrote the algorithm to have a humanoid robot walk, up to now that I simply have to drive pumps and fans.
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
-
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
Working in the engineering industry for 35 years I never trained formally in software or engineering but always had an interest in both even as a kid. 34 years ago I overheard my MD discussing not being able to get anyone to reprogram an inspection machine and I (stupidly?) volunteered to look at it. It was programmed by hand in binary codes which I had to decode by trial and error and a lot of intuition but got it going. I never looked back, since then my weekly routine regularly consists of 50% engineering, 50% software and 50% maths (See, I can do maths!) I consider myself as an engineer that can write software rather than a software engineer and, certainly for me, I couldn't do it without maths.
-
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
-
The first thing I learnt about programming, way back in 1986, was the numerical solution of an equation by the Newton-Raphson method. Later on, implemented the computation of Bessel Functions, Hankel Transforms and solution of Integral Equations, all in Fortran.
-
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
Now imagine how much you'd bang your head if you never had exposure to those. Knowledge is never lost, just dormant. You can rest assured if you didn't have any exposure, your life would be a lot harder now.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
-
Now imagine how much you'd bang your head if you never had exposure to those. Knowledge is never lost, just dormant. You can rest assured if you didn't have any exposure, your life would be a lot harder now.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
-
Interesting. The only math I ever used as a software developer is some pretty basic statistics. And I hated statistics as a student :D
