Level of Math
Author
Hey, now I am really good at Math. If you teach it to me in half an hour I''ll remember it forever, sometimes it''ll take less time for me to learn it. As of right now, I''m in Alegbra II and I was wondering what kinds of Math I should take in order to become a programmer?
Game programming is my dream, I''ve wanted to do it forever and I''ll do whatever it takes to take my dream to a reality.
So with the help of you guys, I think I can make it come true. But I need to know what kind of math this requires in order to know what to study and what Developers look for when hiring Programmers.
Oh one more question, I am really good at web design. HTML, some PHP and some Perl. Would those come in handy when learning to program?
Tyler L
Kaotic Entertainment
"Live Hard, Learn Hard, Game Hard"
All you probably have to do is get up to about Calc III level. Linear Algebra and Differential Equations. I''d give all the money in the world to actually understand all of this Calculus stuff, but I can''t get it that easily! 
-Michael
-Michael
Author
Alright so how far from that class am I if I''m at Algebra 2 now?
Tyler L
Kaotic Entertainment
"Live Hard, Learn Hard, Game Hard"
Tyler L
Kaotic Entertainment
"Live Hard, Learn Hard, Game Hard"
Calculus is important and all, but you''re gonna need some matrix algebra/linear algebra, you need to be good with vectors as well (which is usually covered in college algebra). Calculus I, II, and III are really handy, just for the sake of the problem solving skills involved, but I haven''t come across a situation in programming where I have to do much differentiating, limits, or integrating (other than maybe on paper, and just plugging it in). I mean, things like infinite series are cool to know (esp. taylor and mclaurin series), but not all that much used in game programming, so far as I know. Stuff like foundations of math is cool, but why would you really worry much abour proofs when you''re doing applied math mostly? Oh yeah, let''s not forget trig...be good at trig. AS for how far you are from that now, after algebra II, take trig, calc I, calc II, calc III, linear algebra, and geometry if you wish. Pieces of all of those will come in handy.
Are you in high school? If you are its most likely you don''t get to choose your math classes right away, and if you do there is usually an order of prerequisites that will generally not let you go too advanced too fast. Like I''m taking geometry right now because I have too. Then I get to take trig, then calc, then whatever I want. Since I''m a freshman right now, by my junior year i''ll be able to take whatever I want. Hope this helped ya. :D
Author
Yes I am a Sophomore in High School. I think I get to choose my math classes but I am not sure. Would it be a wise choice to take a math class in Summerschool or would that be a bad idea because of the time restraints?
Tyler L
Kaotic Entertainment
"Live Hard, Learn Hard, Game Hard"
Tyler L
Kaotic Entertainment
"Live Hard, Learn Hard, Game Hard"
Is Calc III the hightest level of calculus? And if so, what math is there after it? I''ll be done with Calc III after my freshmen year in college. It''s still pretty far ahead in the future, but I''m thinking about how far math will go considering the spot I am at right now.
Nah loc, calc 3 is far from as far as calculus goes G. You see, calc 3 only covers like multivariable calculus and TNB frames and such. Topics like why you actually need things like Jacobians in transforms require a knowledge of Tensor calculus which is above calculus 3....
Not to be discouraging but Calculus...any calculus...is 10 times more difficult than anything you''ll see in highschool. Calc 1,2,3 can mean anything depending on the school and it''s semester/quarter lay out.
Discrete math comes in VERY handy just because of how it makes you think about things. Stats and probability is useful. Trig, geometry, matrices, vectors and physics are more useful to game programming. Really it comes down to WHAT you want to program for a game. If you''re doing the networking or script engine then math is not that useful. If you''re doing the physics engine or AI then it''s probably a little more useful. being well rounded and knowing WHAT to put in a game and having VISION (as well as a good team) is what will really make you good at this.
Discrete math comes in VERY handy just because of how it makes you think about things. Stats and probability is useful. Trig, geometry, matrices, vectors and physics are more useful to game programming. Really it comes down to WHAT you want to program for a game. If you''re doing the networking or script engine then math is not that useful. If you''re doing the physics engine or AI then it''s probably a little more useful. being well rounded and knowing WHAT to put in a game and having VISION (as well as a good team) is what will really make you good at this.
quote:Original post by Hexus
Is Calc III the hightest level of calculus? And if so, what math is there after it? I''ll be done with Calc III after my freshmen year in college. It''s still pretty far ahead in the future, but I''m thinking about how far math will go considering the spot I am at right now.
There is indeed (at some schools) a Cal4. It is by no means the highest level of math, and there is still a few things to learn related to Calculus even after that course. That being said, you probably will not need anything higher than Cal3 3, and some Comp Sci programs don''t even require anything beyond Cal2. However, there is still Differential Equations, which is related to Calculus (I think it is technically a subset of Calculus). Advanced statistics courses also use a lot of really advanced calculus (just take any senior-level Random Signals course and you''ll find that out).
And then you''ll really want to take Linear Algebra. At first you may think it''s a lot of weird theory, but it actually has applications in programming more than most other types of math. Numerical Analaysis is also important to programming.
But it''s hard to say what the ''highest'' level of anything is. It has been said that it is impossible for any one person to know everything about math. A good rule of thumb is: if the school you are going to requires you to take it for a Computer Science degree, it is important to know (assuming you''re at a good CS school). At my school I would only need 6 more hours of math to get a dual-major in both CS and Math, if that says anything about how much math is involved in programming.
(And depending on what area you actually plan on going into, some business math might not be a bad idea, either.)
--TheMuuj
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