[Discuss] OT: Do CS grads need calculus?

[John Abreau]

On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 2:38 AM, Bill Bogstad <bogstad at pobox.com> wrote:


> I will state it again.  YES, Calculus is good.  It stretches your
> mind.  The specific
> things it teaches you may or may not be relevant to what you plan to
> do.  Other branches
> of mathematics also stretch your mind, they may be more relevant.  Is
> it really so hard
> to accept the theoretical possibility that the above might be true?
> Not for all people/but for some.
>


As I recall, all the math classes I took before calculus could essentially
be summarized as "here's a bunch of magic formulas to solve various
problems. Memorize them and learn when to use each of them".

Then calculus explained in detail how those formulas were derived. They
were no longer magic. Calculus is the key to truly understanding
mathematics in depth. Those other "alternatives", like Probability, would
be nothing more than another set of memorized magic in the absence of
calculus.

There's a qualitative difference between understanding a problem in depth,
and merely following a set of formulas that you've memorized but that you
don't really understand.


-- 
John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
Email jabr at blu.org / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0x920063C6
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