How math intensive is programming?

Question

To be specific I don't mean programming a computer game. I'm talking more along the lines of computer "programs" like Word, POS systems, business and financial tracking programs, etc.

I was told it used minimal math, which makes sense. But I was also told you could become a better programmer if you were better in math? Is this true? Why?

What's your take on it?

Answer 1

To be a good programmer, you need to be good at reasoning and logic. Math has nothing to do with it. The people who say so probably say that because some complex algorithms require an understanding of some mathematical concepts. But they are not so overwhelming that you need to be a math expert!!



In fact, if at all your logic needs complex mathematical processing, there are many alternatives to avoid getting stuck there. You can use built in functions if your programming language supports that.

For e.g., MATLAB supports toughest of mathematical processing functions like convolution, DFT, FFT etc by buit-in functions. You just need to understand what they do!



For programming you need to be aware of the capabilities and syntax of the language you are programming in and you must be able to think in the right direction.



Just think, what kind of math would you possibly need if you're developing a web site, an audio player, a video player, or a text editor! Nothing but basic math!

Answer 2

Well, it depends. On a lot, if your making "business" or "professional" programs, not games, then you'll probably have to work with arrays, which are just ways to arrange data for the computer to understand.

Most arrays aren't very math intensive, but if you're working with rendering, more so 3D rendering, then your going to get headaches. Programs like Word don't require much math to make, but for a financial tracking program your going to need to know a web-based script like PHP, and make some big fancy arrays, so that can be math intensive. I've never made anything like this, I'm just a "beginner" programming, I understand programming, just aren't the best at it. Personally, I think its just your will and intelligence, although math comes in handy.

Answer 3

You generally don't use a lot of math in programming unless you're programming something that actually does math (a calculator or a calendar or a financial program, and so on).



However, programming LOGIC is very similar to math logic. If you have a solid grasp of mathematics, you'll find that understanding programming logic comes to you much more easily.

Answer 4

If you do anything with graphics or plan on writing games or anything with motion, be prepared to get into math.



Otherwise, most of the things I do with programming require little or basic math. Math skills help you figure out how to write more efficient loops, though, which make your program run a little better.

Answer 5

I know people who program with little math aptitude. None of them is very good, and they have to continuously rely on stealing bits of code from anywhere they can find it for any math related operations. To be able to program properly and develop your own material you need to be able to work out how to do calculations from code, including scripting complex calculations according to data available. Also you need to fully understand conversions from decimal to hexadecimal or binary and back, and the more complex math functions you need the better your knowledge and capabilities need to be.

Answer 6

Certainly mathematics, logic (Data Strctures, Algorithms, graph theory, statistics) plays major role in computer science.



Do understand that in writing Word, POS also lot of mathematics, algorithms are used. However, always there are some application which do not demand high level of mathematics.



Also, once you start picking up coding, yourself may try to pickup mathematics also.