Do you?

**hermit** · 05-02-2002

General question!

Q: do you have to be good in mathematics, in order to be good in programming or computing related fields? from networking, etc etc

**ober** · 05-02-2002

to be honest... math hasn't gotten me anywhere in programming, other than maybe understanding some of the workings behind small parts of my programs... but i guarantee, if you want to be a professional programmer (aka degree and all) you're going to end up taking a butt load of math. (i speak from experience)

ok... i take my first statement back... you will end up needing a lot of math theory, more specifically discrete math and other courses that touch on recursiveness... that will make you a more efficient programmer.

**hermit** · 05-02-2002

i hardly practice maths and i failed discrete maths. last semester
but i find it ok , to do visual basic and c.

But i do find it difficult, to code some maths program. bcoz of my maths background.

im still at the beginner's stage . . so finger cross

**nvoigt** · 05-02-2002

You will need vector and matrix math for anything 3D related. Other than that, you don't need math, but you need logical thinking. And math scores reflect logical thinking better than any other course in school.

**taylorguitarman** · 05-02-2002

You don't have to be as good at math if you just want to be a programmer or technician or something like that. But it does take logical thinking (which mathematicians are usually good at).

If you want to do 3D games, or be a computer engineer/scientist then I'd say you're going to have to get better at math. You'll have to be able to understand all sorts of algorithms to understand the why things are done the way they are. Discrete math concepts are used heavily in CS so you might want to get some help. I had a pretty hard time in my first discrete math course, then I took a combinatorics/graph theory class about a year later and found it easier (relatively). I'd had the chance to take some OS design and programming language structure classes so I got some practical application for some of the concepts which made things much clearer. Networking is another area that uses discrete math concepts (at least for the architecture of it, not so much for the application programming).
Linear algebra is another math topic that's helpful for programming.

Bottom line: it's a good idea to have a strong foundation in mathematics.

JO · 05-02-2002

I don't think you have to be good at maths, I can understand enough to do 3D programming, use different number systems and whatever else programming generally requires and I consider myself sh|t at maths. Besides, it depends on whats being coded.

**Shiro** · 05-02-2002

>You don't have to be as good at math if you just want to be a
>programmer or technician or something like that.

It depends on what you're going to program. When creating low level audio applications (audio compression, digital audio filters), you need to know about the theory of signals and systems. For creating things like 3D games, you need to know about the theorie of matrices and vectors. And cryptology requires a good understanding of number theory and (abstract) algebra.

**hermit** · 05-03-2002

good, not that im not good with maths, can be bothered to learn all the theories. But, programmings is a whole different issue, no theories . . just logic. well, im moving into second year of uni, just a little worried that i cant get far without maths

but i take your words and your advices! Thanks you

I beginning to like this forum. . . ALOT

**Shiro** · 05-03-2002

>just logic.

Logic is also mathematics. You don't need to learn all the theories. In fact most theories are so specific that you only need to learn them when you're going to create specific applications which require those specific knowledge of math.

**salvelinus** · 05-03-2002

What is discrete math? Is there indiscreet math? People have referred to my math as "dis cretin's math", is that the same thing?

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