Is Maths Necessary To Become A Computer Scientist?

[αNerd]

I just had a dekko on an article in which it was remarked that Maths isnt necessary to become a computer scientist.

What do you all think here in the forum? I have reserved my comments for future.

Edit: I posted this in wrong section, mods please move it to fight club.

 

[Pathik]

i am a 1st yr engg student myself and havent yet figured out how high level maths is related to software development... but some people say its very important.. if any1 can elaborate how then it wd be good...

 

[gaurav_indian]

^^ Maths is necessary for a game developer.

 

[QwertyManiac]

pathiks - You can't seriously program without any knowledge of maths, can you!?

As far as science is concerned, a small amount of math is always applied to almost every branch of it, but you don't really need to be a nerd in the subject to be able to innovate, discover or invent things. It'd just help you to get things started, in and out of troubles and finish things up neat and accurate. But if its related to computers"
>>'no math' == 'no use' would return True

 

[Lucky_star]

this maths was the most f***ing subject I ever had in the last 6 semesters. I don't know what the Fourier transform, laplace, and a hell lot got to do with Computer Science. That to with high credit points. Means you have to score well in these papers.

The first and second year where the most boring in comp. science.
I had to read Physics(I/II), Chemistry(I/II), Maths( 4 papers + 1 Discrete Mathematics), Electrical(electrical, Network theory, Electrical Machines),
Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Economics, Organisational Behaviour, Electronics(Basic, Analogue and digital- these were useful papers).


But the core subjects where only four- C, Datastructure, C++, RDBMS.

Now, guys do you think these subjects are of any use in computer science?
Anyway, those terrible days are over

 

[gaurav_indian]

this maths was the most f***ing subject I ever had in the last 6 semesters. I don't know what the Fourier transform, laplace, and a hell lot got to do with Computer Science. That to with high credit points. Means you have to score well in these papers.

The first and second year where the most boring in comp. science.
I had to read Physics(I/II), Chemistry(I/II), Maths( 4 papers + 1 Discrete Mathematics), Electrical(electrical, Network theory, Electrical Machines),
Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Economics, Organisational Behaviour, Electronics(Basic, Analogue and digital- this was a useful paper).


But the core subjects where only four- C, Datastructure, C++, RDBMS.

Now, guys do you think these subjects are of any use in computer science?
Anyway, those terrible days are over

lol i hate discrete mathematics.B/w can u suggest me some good books for Discrete mathematics especially for Recurrences.

 

[gxsaurav]

Math is teh sh!t....it is the mother of all languages out there. I don't know about the computer science part but arithmetic is required in all fields of life so make sure that is strong.

 

[QwertyManiac]

The first and second year where the most boring in comp. science.
I had to read Physics(I/II), Chemistry(I/II), Maths( 4 papers + 1 Discrete Mathematics), Electrical(electrical, Network theory, Electrical Machines),
Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Economics, Organisational Behaviour, Electronics(Basic, Analogue and digital- this was a useful paper).

Looool! Am in B.Tech IT of Anna Univ's sylabbus and I was thinking mine's the worst of all!

Thermodynamics, Economics, Mechanics, Electrical Machines really? Man, must've been one hell of a life!

 

[Lucky_star]

lol i hate discrete mathematics.B/w can u suggest me some good books for Discrete mathematics especially for Recurrences.

Our text book was Discrete Mathematics and its applications by KE Rosen. And it was more than enough for me.
For each chapter there are more than 100 problems. YOu can find a lot of recurrence relation problems there.
Sidewise, there is another book I was using: Elements of Discrete Mathematics By C.L. Liu.
And its a good book.

Only God knows how I cleared that paper

 

[faraaz]

Without Maths, you can't program...without programming, I dunno what kind of computer scientist you will turn out to be...so yeah, maths is crucial to be a Computer Scientist. That, and physics...

 

[gaurav_indian]

Our text book was Discrete Mathematics and its applications by KE Rosen. And it was more than enough for me.
For each chapter there are more than 100 problems. YOu can find a lot of recurrence relation problems there.
Sidewise, there is another book I was using: Elements of Discrete Mathematics By C.L. Liu.
And its a good book.

Only God knows how I cleared that paper

Tell me the name of publishers also.

 

[xsreality]

Looool! Am in B.Tech IT of Anna Univ's sylabbus and I was thinking mine's the worst of all!

Thermodynamics, Economics, Mechanics, Electrical Machines really? Man, must've been one hell of a life!

it seems all over india, universities have the same syllabus.. i had maths till fourth semester only. And regarding the question asked.. maths taught in engg course has hardly got anything to do with compuer science.. its just there like other first year subjects!

By maths, what one means is that you should basically be good with numbers and quite thorough with maths upto XII level. That helps in thinking logically.. a must for a programmer! That is what comes up most of the time in computer science. Engg. maths is of no use.

 

[iMav]

maths .... dont get me started on this subject .... im paying a heavy price of some of the mistakes i made in my last birth .... no in my last 100 births .. all put together im paying it with maths

 

[Lucky_star]

Without Maths, you can't program...without programming, I dunno what kind of computer scientist you will turn out to be...so yeah, maths is crucial to be a Computer Scientist. That, and physics...

Faraaz, the maths which you are speaking is basic maths...those that we have learned upto class 12th. And I think, that's more than enough for any programmer.
But this engg. maths papers sucks. No use of it anywhere... Over these three years of engg and till today, I haven't seen a single program which utilizes the terrific formulas and logics of what I learnt in engg. maths...anywhere.
But, of course, in future, we may face a project where complex mathematical calculations may be involved. But that's in future. We can very well learn those and do the program, then. Why to worry for it now?
Ask any student in my university(Biju Patnaik University of technology) whether they like the maths papers or not. And I bet, you won't find a single one.
They are such boring.
But it would have been interesting, if they taught the applications of maths in real life side-by-side.

Tell me the name of publishers also.

KE Rosen: Tata Mcgraw Hill Publications.
C.L. Liu: Same, Tata Mcgraw Hill.

Hmmm, lemme look at the syllabus
there is this another book mentioned, although haven't seen it
Thomas Koshy- DMS and its applications, ELSEIVER publications.

Saying the truth, I never looked through the books.
Thanks to those guides and local publications that helped me clear these $#!*

 

[iMav]

the maths tht sux is engg maths .... its full cr@p

 

[max_demon]

Maths is my fav subject!i love it

 

[NIGHTMARE]

maths speed up our mind to solve numerical or another problem means increase your response time to calculate any thing in real life

 

[RCuber]

I myself flunked in Maths many times But maths is building block for everything.

I will try to put some of my thoughts ..

1. Take game programming . Take any shooter game.. you shoot a bullet or a rocket in the air .. does it go just straight up and never comeback? no it has a trajectory.. and hits a target ... there is lot of calculation going on when you shoot, the direction, the angle of firing.. etc etc.. all there are calculated rite?

We are now having physics engine.. Half Life.. I have not played the game myself but have read it has got one of the best physics engine. How are the calculations done? Far Cry , Crysis ?? Rendering engines

2. Formula 1 wind tunnel. The Formula 1 teams put millions of dollars on wind tunnel tests to get the perfect aerodynamics. I remember Williams team using HP mainframe clusters running linux to simulate wind tunnel test.
This is all maths and physics. just + and - doesnt work here. they need complex calculations get the optimal results for best grip and speed.

3.Audio/Video . Mp3 , Divx ?? how can you convert 4GB DVD into 700MB divx? Is it by magic!!!. The conversion programs are taking each frame and calculating and detecting redundant data which can be removed from the original so that compressed frame remains as good as the original.

These are just few of my thoughts .. its up to you to decide if you want to do this
main()
{
int a,b,c;
a=1;
b=2;
c=a+b;
printf("%d",c); /* */
getch();
}

Or want to calculate the trajectory of a bullet been fired in your next game. or want to build a codec which is better than Divx/Xvid..

 

[αNerd]

Here is a pointer to the article I referred in my post above: *www.itwire.com.au/content/view/13339/53/

 

[Lucky_star]

@charangk,

Those Game programming, Formula 1 simulation testing, multimedia encoding are specialisations which you take up later.
You got to learn it when you are in it. Why learn them now?

With connection to my previous posts, the whole point of my discussion is that two papers are wasted every year in maths. And during this two years, as a computer science student we have learned only C/C++ which even a school going student knows very well these days.
No papers like Java, VB, .net, etc while enough time is dedicated to other useless papers(not only maths) that serves no purpose.