Hi all - I''m an art student, and most of my other background is in general humanities stuff. I''m starting to learn C++ and Java, and have had some success, but I''d like to know about what to study on my own. I''d love to take math classes eventually... it''s just been difficult to gather the courage. I''ve gone over pre-algebra, algebra, and basic geometry proofs. I''m fairly decent with logic and statistics because these were the (only) math courses required for my other degrees. I have a little experience with trigonometry, and no experience with pre-calculus (is pre-calculus just a group of other subjects?). I''m seeing calculus as kind of a holy, unattainable grail at the moment. I don''t actually know if calculus is the best thing for an aspiring game developer to think about, just that computer science majors seem to enjoy it. I''d love to know what things like linear algebra are and what kinds of math I would have to be familiar with to design game physics. Any comments are greatly appreciated. I have more than enough to worry about for the time being, but that''s no reason to neglect math entirely. PS: Are there any software packages that would really help?

A lot of colleges have calculus as a prerequisite for linear algebra, though there are some non-calculus based linear algebra classes that you can take. You won''t really need calculus-based for game development.

I''m not sure about your region, but here in Ontario, Canada, a lot of that stuff is covered in our standard high school courses. Grade 9 and Grade 10 math taught linear equations, quadratic equations, and trigonometry. The Grade 11 course I''m taking, Functions and Relations of Math, advances our knowledge of what we learned in Grades 9 and 10 and also teaches us additional information about similar topics. It is, however, still 2-dimensional, with no z-axis equations. In Grade 12, you can take Data Management, Introductory Calculus, and Geometry and Discrete Math.

When I was in school, pre-calculus was really just more trigonometry, and sometimes limit math if the instructor was feeling that he was on a roll.

You really don''t need anything more than a good understanding of algebra to get calculus. Trig is only typically required because the only ''hard'' calculus problems they can come up with to test you on involve trig identities.

I know that it's been some time that I posted the original, but I figured that I'd bump the topic instead of making a new one. Thanks again for any information. Does anyone know of good software that helps one to learn the basics of subjects like calculus, trig, etc? Could this software be purchased with a student discount?

EDIT - I've just seen software called Mathematica 4.1 at studica.com. Does anyone have any experience with this software?

[edited by - Northchild on July 14, 2002 1:19:37 PM]

Mathematica is a really, really, really awesome calculator, but it''s probably not good to learn any math from it. Using it while you''re learning math is good, just don''t use it to cheat. (ie, solve many problems yourself, don''t use Mathematica). Actually, I have no experience with it, but I do with a similar product called Maple. I''m not aware of any programs that teach you the higher maths.

Here''s a link to a very long calculus tutorial. From reading the introduction, it looks like it may be good. Unfortunately, I don''t see any problems for you to work out, which is absolutely necessary when learning any math (unless you''re a genius).
http://www.karlscalculus.org/calculus.html#toc
I found this by searching in google for ''calculus learn''. It was the first thing that popped up. I''m sure you could find lots of other links for calculus, linear algebra, or whatever else interests you.