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Math is what makes computer science unique from programming. The study of languages and machines, rather related to set theory.
And I am not sure, but I'm pretty sure Calculus was created for the sake of Physics. Interestingly, it was reinvented by The Economist, for the sake of Economics.
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In early days, centuries ago, there was no distinction between math and physics. It took centuries before there was some kind of specialisation which resulted in math and physics as we know it these days. Perhaps this is the reason why physics and math are so close related.
That why I don't believe that math was developed to help physics.
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i hate set theory!
set theory, cartesian product, binomial coeeficients
erghh!
(these are the bitter words of someone part way through a maths assgnment)
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Set Theory is another ball game for computer science. If you dig through database theory you see its building blocks are set theory.
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More that I think about and recalling my days of having to dig through Dr. Knuth's books and listing to my profs, most first computer scientist were Physicist and Mathematicians. They had to choose these fields becuase computer was no a developed feild yet. I wonder how many mathematicians and physicist of pld, if put in todays world would be Computer Scientists. Just a thought.
Anyone know who Charles Babbage is and who Ada Lovelace is?
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I don't know about Lovelace, but Babbage invented the difference engine (first computer).... And he's got a nice store named after him.
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Lovelace wrote the first computer program.
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>i hate set theory!
Ah, discrete math, not my favourite kind of math too. I had to do it for university, but I'm very happy that I don't need it anymore. But I like calculus, Fourier-analysis and that kind of stuff. It's very useful too.
There's even a Dutchman who is quite famous in the world of computers: Edsger W. Dijkstra. And he's not only a Dutchman, but he is a Frisian! (At least, his name is quite Frisian :-))
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Youīre right I find pure maths also very interesting.
But once I didnīt.
Before doing cryptography etc. I didnīt see so much sense in doing math. It would be more interesting especially for students, if you would do more interesting applications at school than so much theoretic maths.
klausi
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Applications of math makes math interesting. Though one has to understand math first before being able to use math. But I agree that students should do some more applications in math, just to stimulate their interest in pure math which is the basis of what they're doing.