>I would like to know what kind of mathematics are important to know >for a programmer or computer scientist.
Don't know about a CS, but I can give you one programmer data point. > so I did not take a lot of math courses. Though never much of a mathematician, I took courses up through calc and differential equations, and physics up through basic quantum physics. For a brief moment in time (long enough to pass the test), I could actually derive Schr�dinger's equation! When I wrote computer graphics code, I needed geometry and transformation system information. It was nice that I had once studied such things, but in fact I had to dig out the books and as often as not the information/technique I needed was not something my formal studies had covered, so it's not clear that having studied it was a real big leg up. When I got into computer animation, I needed knowledge of physics. Again, nice to have had some background, but a large amount of information seemed to be really specific to the problems at hand, and not simply "pulled up" from having taken relevant courses. For the vast majority of the areas I've worked in (file systems, communications, EFT, databases, user interface design, anti-submarine warfare, etc.), I have not found much need for math beyond the high school level at all. Of course, my high school taught both algebra and trig, and I find that those two subjects are useful on a surprisingly regular basis for getting through life, not just for random programming problems. If you didn't get a good grasp of those two things already, that sure might be a worthwhile area of study. >So I have not yet encountered a situation where my background was >insufficient. I'm betting that when you do, it will require information specific to the problem domain that you will be unlikely to have encountered in formal study, though some formal study might make it easier to locate and understand the information you need. I have found areas of knowledge that were of fairly general use in a variety of programming situations, but they were usually not mathematics. For example, an understanding of automata is something I've relied on over and over again. OTOH, that understanding arose not from the automata theory class I took in college, but from having spent a summer implementing my own version of Lex (lexical analyzer generator) from the ground up. I learn best by doing; YMMV :-) In general, I think being good at research and learning is more valuable than specific knowledge for programmers in these days of highly specialized areas of endeavour. - Automatic footer for [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe discuss To join the announcements list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe announce To receive a help file, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] help This list is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ If you have any problems or questions, please mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
