Are differential equations useful for CS?
not really unless you go into graphics rendering for VIDYA GAYMEZZ and need to come up with better ways to do stuff like quarternion interpolation or physically based shading from non-uniform light sources
>>54535270
People working on that are usually mathematicians who know a little bit of coding (mostly algorithms), not CS grads who know a little bit of math.
The answer is yes and not and it depends on where you want to work. If you aim to be a senior codemonkey then they are worthless. If you want to work on graphics, rendering, finance, NASA, CERN, etc, then yes. But like I said people working on those fields or places usually don't study CS.
>>54535383
So remind me again, what are CS grads actually good for?
>>54536253
Nothing really.
That's why u should double major.
Or do CS for undergrad, and then go get a masters or PhD in some engineering thing.
The reality in this day and age is that anyone can program and anyone can obtain the same knowledge and skill as a CS major @ a uni. So u need to find or do something that will make you really standout.
People are equating CS with Software Engineering. While most CS grads become Software Engineers because that major - if software engineering isn't offered at your school - best prepares you for that career. CS at its core is a mathematical science, and computer scientists are mathematicians. So, the more math you know the better, you just have to find a problem that you can apply them to. For example, I'm a CS major, but since I'm actually doing CS (information security in particular) and not software engineering, I had to master Algebra, Number Theory, Complexity Theory, Probability Theory, and yes, Differential Equations (used in various signal processing algorithms). If you make phone calls, watch videos, listen to music, you're using software that applies differentials equations.
>>54535134
No.
>>54536466
Also, CS isn't Programming. Every engineer learns to program. Programming is just a tool used to implement algorithms. CS is about the design and analysis of algorithms, not the Programming.
>>54535134
yes in machine learning
>>54535134
Differential equations are very useful for modelling just about every physical phenomenon.
Propagation of heat and waves (liquid, sound, electromagnetic), diffusion of substances and effectiveness of drugs, evolution of dynamical systems (population models, weather models).
Even when simplistically trying to find a maximum/minimum by derivation, or trying to solve an integral, your solving a first order differential equation.
They're very useful, and the techniques for the most part are easy to grasp. Because you'll only have to deal with simple differential equations, for which there's are clearly defined steps for solving them, once you recognise their type (about a dozen types for an introductory class).
I think it's one of the few pure math classes, that have so much application (and "wow" factor), while having to learn so little. The only "pure theoretical" thing you'll do in an introductory class, is probably the proof of the existence+uniqueness theorem for the solution of a dif equation.
It's an easy class, you don't have to worry about anything.
>>54536253
for being programmers
>>54536253
Because a different major taking programming classes won't be able to do things like networking, working with an operating sytem API, multithreading, efficiently sorting, amortized analysis, b trees, emde boas trees, flow networks, shortest path algorithms, etc etc.
>>54535134
yes
>>54536556
>CS isn't Programming.
Na dude, The head hancho at UCB say's it's programming.
>>54537651
maybe
