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Learning a programming languge: good maths skills required?

Reply 20

Cromulent

12

kimgan

this thread was an interesting read. :smile:

i've always wondered about this point, not being the full fledged Computer Science student that i am. when i say i want study Computer Science properly/fully, given a 2nd chance, i always get told "don't you have to be very good at Maths?"...killjoys. meh.
suffice to say, i am not a Maths whiz for sure. but i did manage to survive the 'Programming for Business Applications' & 'Database Management Systems' modules back in uni unscathed.

I'm rubbish at pure maths but good at things like probability and set theory which are used lots in computing. Lots of people think they are rubbish at maths when in fact the maths you learnt at school is not really the same kind of maths you would use in computer science.

I can't once remember studying discreet maths in any kind of depth at school, which I think is a real shame. It is something I think needs to be remedied actually. I think I would have done better if it had been more prominent.

Reply 21

INTit

17

Cromulent

I'm rubbish at pure maths but good at things like probability and set theory which are used lots in computing. Lots of people think they are rubbish at maths when in fact the maths you learnt at school is not really the same kind of maths you would use in computer science.

I can't once remember studying discreet maths in any kind of depth at school, which I think is a real shame. It is something I think needs to be remedied actually. I think I would have done better if it had been more prominent.

My lecturer failed to point out any practical use for set theory whatsoever(same with matrices but I worked it out). We basically just memorized what all the symbols ment for the exam.

You got any links explaining how it is used practically cromulent ?

Reply 22

slugonamission

Matrices and vectors are awesome for graphics, although you don't really need to know how they work, or construct them manually (although for doing any serious graphics programming, you really do need to have a decent knoweledge of them for algorithms like lighting and shadows to make sense).

Reply 23

username207709

Cromulent

I'm rubbish at pure maths but good at things like probability and set theory which are used lots in computing. Lots of people think they are rubbish at maths when in fact the maths you learnt at school is not really the same kind of maths you would use in computer science.

I can't once remember studying discreet maths in any kind of depth at school, which I think is a real shame. It is something I think needs to be remedied actually. I think I would have done better if it had been more prominent.

good point about discrete maths. i don't really remember covering it either at school in O-Levels (the local Malaysian equivalent anyway) & A-Levels. not in a computing application sense anyway. & there was a gap of about a year+ between A-Levels & when i took up Business Computing as part of my degree (i.e. 1yr+ of not doing any serious maths stuff).

btw, noticed in your sig that you changed courses from Arts (Creative Writing) to Computer Science. do you find that you need to switch gears between the 2 subjects/fields? i was doing both Creative Writing (Mass Comm) & Business Computing concurrently at uni & sometimes it felt like i had to switch between 2 brain modes. heh

Reply 24

alex-hs

16

shuvle

20

Nope, not 20, 33.33333

5 * (4 + 8 / (1 + 2) )
= 5 * (4 + 8 / (3) )
= 5 * (4 + 2.66667)
= 5 * (6.66667)
= 33.33333

Cos / has higher precedence than +, ie you do divides before pluses if precedence isn't made explicit by brackets.

Reply 25

-Em-

2

alex-hs

Nope, not 20, 33.33333

5 * (4 + 8 / (1 + 2) )

Nope, procedure application: expected procedure, given: 1; arguments were: #<primitive:+> 2 :biggrin:

Reply 26

laser

10

I reckon the answer is 35 because you're doing integer operations!

5 * (4 + 8 / (1 + 2) )
= 5 * (4 + 8 / (3) )
= 5 * (4 + 3) # 8/3 rounds to 3 as you're doing integer division :wink:

= 5 * (7)
= 35

Ah, the wonderful world of floating points

Reply 27

Psyk

16

laser

I reckon the answer is 35 because you're doing integer operations!

5 * (4 + 8 / (1 + 2) )
= 5 * (4 + 8 / (3) )
= 5 * (4 + 3) # 8/3 rounds to 3 as you're doing integer division :wink:

= 5 * (7)
= 35

Ah, the wonderful world of floating points

Doesn't it normally truncate rather than round? So 8/3 = 2, meaning the answer is 30.

Ah, you're right.

kimgan

btw, noticed in your sig that you changed courses from Arts (Creative Writing) to Computer Science. do you find that you need to switch gears between the 2 subjects/fields? i was doing both Creative Writing (Mass Comm) & Business Computing concurrently at uni & sometimes it felt like i had to switch between 2 brain modes. heh

In general, not really but there are times when it is very easy to get bogged down in details in computer science rather than looking at the bigger picture and I certainly find I need to be more alert when I am working on a particularly complex program.

I think when I am writing I find it harder to concentrate because I need to be left alone and work at really weird hours, where as when I am programming I generally tend to keep relatively normal hours.

Learning a programming languge: good maths skills required?

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