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Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

courses.csail.mit.edu

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Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#61

Post by mattmanser »

impendia wrote: post #20

This fall I will be teaching the required "Discrete Math for CS course" to about fifty students at the University of South Carolina. Previously I used Epp's book [1] which in my opinion is an outstanding book but regrettably is $280.44. Many of our students are working minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, and I don't want to make them pay so much if I can at all help it. Lucky I saw this!! I do have one reservation t…

Honest question, why would you spend weeks doing proof by induction?

Looking it up, I think I did that when I was 16, but I've never used it while programming. I can't see a single benefit to knowing it for programming. Been programming professionally for 12 years now. What am I missing?

Why do you think it's important?

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#62

Post by popcorncolonel »

mattmanser wrote: post #61
impendia wrote: post #20

This fall I will be teaching the required "Discrete Math for CS course" to about fifty students at the University of South Carolina. Previously I used Epp's book [1] which in my opinion is an outstanding book but regrettably is $280.44. Many of our students are working minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, and I don't want to make them pay so much if I can at all help it. Lucky I saw this!! I do have one reservation t…

Honest question, why would you spend weeks doing proof by induction? Looking it up, I think I did that when I was 16, but I've never used it while programming. I can't see a single benefit to knowing it for programming. Been programming professionally for 12 years now. What am I missing? Why do you think it's important?

It's helpful for truly understanding recursion.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#63

Post by tarsinge »

mattmanser wrote: post #61
impendia wrote: post #20

This fall I will be teaching the required "Discrete Math for CS course" to about fifty students at the University of South Carolina. Previously I used Epp's book [1] which in my opinion is an outstanding book but regrettably is $280.44. Many of our students are working minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, and I don't want to make them pay so much if I can at all help it. Lucky I saw this!! I do have one reservation t…

Honest question, why would you spend weeks doing proof by induction? Looking it up, I think I did that when I was 16, but I've never used it while programming. I can't see a single benefit to knowing it for programming. Been programming professionally for 12 years now. What am I missing? Why do you think it's important?

They are the basis of recursive algorithms proofs, sure you may not need them for everyday programming but that's different for computer science

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#64

Post by mattmanser »

popcorncolonel wrote: post #62
mattmanser wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, why would you spend weeks doing proof by induction? Looking it up, I think I did that when I was 16, but I've never used it while programming. I can't see a single benefit to knowing it for programming. Been programming professionally for 12 years now. What am I missing? Why do you think it's important?

It's helpful for truly understanding recursion.

If it's so useful for "truly" understanding it, why do I have to show so many CS educated juniors how to use recursion? Have to point out to them to use it instead of doing crazy nested loops or other stupid solutions to a problem simply solved using recursion?

Given that I obviously don't "truly" understand it, having never done a CS degree.

I'd posit that most CS students don't truly understand recursion, they just vaguely know the theoretical basis behind a practical skill they have no experience in.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#65

Post by dave1629 »

impendia wrote: post #20

This fall I will be teaching the required "Discrete Math for CS course" to about fifty students at the University of South Carolina. Previously I used Epp's book [1] which in my opinion is an outstanding book but regrettably is $280.44. Many of our students are working minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, and I don't want to make them pay so much if I can at all help it. Lucky I saw this!! I do have one reservation t…

I used this book for my course at the University of Virginia last semester, https://uvacs2102.github.io/.

The book is terrific, and wonderful that it is available under a CC license. Most students found it accessible. We covered about Chapters 1-8 (and some things not in the book). (This is only the first part of the book, so a much slower pace than the MIT course. Some of this is to have more time for additional background and to go in depth in things, but also that our courses are scheduled with about 2/3 the amount of time per class as an MIT course is.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#66

Post by yomly »

dmlittle wrote: post #50
jmstfv wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to check the older version of this course https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...

I was lucky enough to sit in his lectures :) If anyone is considering this OCW course, I highly encourage Leighton's lectures.

For no particular reason opted to learn from one of the older lecture series. Can confirm that Leighton's lectures are a delight

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#67

Post by [deleted] »

dmlittle wrote: post #50
jmstfv wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to check the older version of this course https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...

I was lucky enough to sit in his lectures :) If anyone is considering this OCW course, I highly encourage Leighton's lectures.

[deleted]

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#68

Post by chrisweekly »

impendia wrote: post #20

This fall I will be teaching the required "Discrete Math for CS course" to about fifty students at the University of South Carolina. Previously I used Epp's book [1] which in my opinion is an outstanding book but regrettably is $280.44. Many of our students are working minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, and I don't want to make them pay so much if I can at all help it. Lucky I saw this!! I do have one reservation t…

https://betterexplained.com/ is hands-down the most transformative free resource for understanding math I've ever encountered.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#69

Post by lucb1e »

This document is over 900 pages. How long are you supposed to take to read and understand all of this? And is this really all necessary?

On the surface this looks like an insurmountable task with questionable benefits. Don't get me wrong, but in the past 6 years of casual and professional programming, I've needed only a basic understanding of math, the most difficult thing being collision detection in games, and that includes doing RSA cryptography by hand. This paper starts off with proofs, something I've never had in school and which always seemed to me as if they only belong in scientific math papers, not practical life of someone doing computer science.

I don't mean to criticize the document or math in general, I would genuinely like to understand what 900 pages of this is going to bring me, especially when it starts with something I've never needed or seen outside of theoretical math discussions.

Re: Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

#70

Post by Synaesthesia »

lucb1e wrote: post #69

This document is over 900 pages. How long are you supposed to take to read and understand all of this? And is this really all necessary? On the surface this looks like an insurmountable task with questionable benefits. Don't get me wrong, but in the past 6 years of casual and professional programming, I've needed only a basic understanding of math, the most difficult thing being collision detection in games, and that…

It's hardly insurmountable, but to answer your question, maybe people will read it because you're just curious, want to learn. Also you don't have to learn all, or any of it -maybe you could just use it as a reference book.
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