Hey guys Im thinking of going into computer science major, just had a quick question. I know I have to take all of the calculus courses 1,2,3. Just wanted to know if you really use it on your everyday job? Or is it just one of those things that you have to get through it, but not really useful in the everyday? Thanks in advance, im just curious.

well you dont really have to know a lot of calculus to become a programmer..i know a lot of people who arent any good at math but still are good programmers..however calculus can help you in certain fields..if you're gonna go into media engineering and signal processing stuff then you will need a lot of calculus..also if you're gonna go into game development then you will need calculus and some physics

Thanks for your reply. I dont know into what field Im going but I guess if I want to get my degree I have to know my calculus...

Even if you don't use it, taking I and II (and if you're lucky III) will be a good experience nonetheless.

I agree with KYA

Look at it this way. Imagine a quest in an RPG. Here's the thing, you don't know what the end goal is. You need to carry a supply of materials that will help you complete the tasks for the end goal, that you know nothing about. Furthermore, if you discover along the way that you didn't pick the right materials from the start, you fail the quest.

What strategy would you use to have the highest chance of completing this quest? As you might imagine, it's picking a large variety of supplies. You want to be able to handle whatever obstacles come in front of your goal, that you discover a long time from the beginning.

That's kind of what education is about. Free time and education time is extremely valuable. When you are constantly engaged in the educational process, this isn't exactly apparent. But time is something you can't buy. So when you need it, you regret not having it.

Don't look at learning calculus and other maths as a requirement for your degree. Look at it as something that gives you an edge. Another tool to add to your pack.

This post has been edited by Oler1s: 12 Sep, 2009 - 10:31 PM

Everything said makes a lot of sense, it will be a good experience and it will give me an edge. Thanks a lot guys I really appreciate it!!!!!

The best thing about the math classes I've taken towards my B.S. in Computer Science is that they make many other math problems seem easy. It is a very good experience, as has been stated. I found some of it tough and some of it seemed pointless, but in the end, I found it very beneficial. There is a great chance you will see the material later in other courses. It certainly broadens the possible directions you can take your career.

I wouldn't call it an edge so much, at least compared to other CS majors because I believe most will have the same classes or similar, but its a good thing to have.

Some schools offer plain BS in Computer Science and they also have degrees for Computer Science mixed with Electrical Engineering or something else. With the plain one you could virtually avoid Calculus completely on the job but they'll still need you to know it for college coursework. It becomes difficult to progress in school later on in data structure classes without knowledge of advance math theory because the problems are presented as symbolic equations rather than the word problems seen in introductory courses. Many places also need you to pick one of three regular sciences in upper division learning and a lot of that would be easier if you already were comfortable with high math.

The whole area of scientific computing is based on the foundations of Calculus. Part of Calculus are the series and different methods of finding their convergences (which involves differentiating and integrating the series) which play a big role in algorithm analysis and generating functions (which are very useful in CS as well).