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There is very little room for computing in pure math research. The Four Color Theorem is still an exception and not just because mathematicians can’t program. T
by pixcavator 18y ago
There is very little room for computing in pure math research. The Four Color Theorem is still an exception and not just because mathematicians can’t program. That said this is irrelevant because the article is about the undergraduate program. Only a minority of undergraduate math majors end up as PhDs in math. The rest do something else. Sadly some of them end up teaching high school or as actuaries (no offence). If they want to do something else but still math related then yes, they definitely need a programming course!
- lacker 18y agoI disagree with your statement and wish you would provide a counterargument. I think the four color theorem is an exception because mathematicians weren't impressed and excited to find that computers could prove theorems. Instead they were disappointed and considered it somehow "wrong". We should be pushing forward with automatic theorem provers, and we would be if more mathematicians could program.
- pixcavator 18y agoI was not commenting on the way things should be, only on the way they have been.
- jlouis 18y agoGAP? Pari/GP? Mathematica? Magma? There is much room for programming in modern pure math research. In fact, I think we will end up seeing much more computer-aided-math than you think.
- pixcavator 18y ago>>GAP? Pari/GP? Mathematica? Magma? Are you suggesting these as tools for mathematicians? Now what is supposed to happen? They have to find problems for these tools? It should be the other way around...
- rkowalick 18y agoIt's called experimental mathematics. It's gathering data about known structures to make conjectures about all structures satisfying certain properties. Not to mention that, even outside of experimental math, there are plenty of pain-in-the-ass calculations that computer algebra systems make so much easier.