Subj : Re: Good math skills a requirement?
To   : comp.programming
From : Matthias Kaeppler
Date : Thu Aug 04 2005 07:07 pm

James C. wrote:
> ... How in 
> the heck is geometry, trig, calculus, etc. going to aid in this type of 
> project? 

Maybe not in this project, but if that is your whole understanding of 
programming you are mistaken. It really just depends in which fields you 
work. In some you'd better be good at math, in others you don't 
necessarily need to.

For example, in the vast field of computer graphics and visualization 
you'd better have decent skills in vector algebra and analysis. Or how 
else would you want to find/understand an algorithm for smoothing a 
3D-mesh without knowing anything in these fields?
Another example would be artificial intelligence. You'd better be good 
in deductive logic to be good at that.
Third example: Cryptography. This field is very much concentrated around 
prime number theory.
Fourth example: Even for databases you have to do some math. How else 
would you find the best algorithm to insert into a B-Tree if you already 
fail at calculating its height.

It really depends what you mean by "programming". For an application or 
tool programmer, math isn't that important I guess. For a computer 
scientist it probably is.

On the other hand, I'm not very good at math and I study CS. I 
specialize in software engineering and databases (yes, I know how the 
height of a B-Tree is calculated *g*) and I get along good enough even 
without being a math genius. And though my math grades might not be 
good, I consider myself being a decent programmer, and my grades in 
these fields confirm that.

It all depends I guess.

-- 
Matthias Kaeppler

.