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This was true for me, and partly out of frustration of this I picked up a major in math in addition to comp sci so I could get through more math heavy computer

This was true for me, and partly out of frustration of this I picked up a major in math in addition to comp sci so I could get through more math heavy computer science books. It depends what you are reading, but a good discrete math textbook provides a lot of groundwork for mathematics commonly used in computer science, but expects little in terms of prerequisites, so notation is usually explained. At some level, learning the fundamentals is just necessary, but for computer science discrete mathematics and linear algebra (the basics of which are easy and also don't have much in terms of prerequisites) will get you far. On the other hand higher math is ruthlessly cumulative. If you find that you need to understand Lagrange multipliers, for instance, you'll see they relate to the gradient, which has its own symbol, which is defined in terms of partial derivatives, which have their own symbol, which relates to limits of vectors, which have their own symbols and notations, etc.

celer 15y ago
I wouldn't say that it is just higher math. As a high school student, here is my path of e^ix. Physics 1 Advanced, Simple Harmonic Motion is being taught. When told to find a case where the second derivative of a function is a negative constant times the function, I think e^ix. The answer is sin(x), but Euler's equation now makes sense. The most beautiful equation now makes sense. A month later, glancing in a book of useful mathematical equations, I see sin(x) = (e^ix - e^-ix)/2i. Hyperbolic trig suddenly makes sense, which is useful over a year after finishing it. The weird equation for the normal curve from statistics starts to make more sense, because e^(-xx)=(e^(ix))^ix, which helps explain the 1/sqrt(2pi) weirdness. I start to understand why the most beautiful equation has its name. I think that most math is cumulative, but only some parts are hard enough to make you notice it.

celer 15y ago

I wouldn't say that it is just higher math. As a high school student, here is my path of e^ix. Physics 1 Advanced, Simple Harmonic Motion is being taught. When told to find a case where the second derivative of a function is a negative constant times the function, I think e^ix. The answer is sin(x), but Euler's equation now makes sense. The most beautiful equation now makes sense. A month later, glancing in a book of useful mathematical equations, I see sin(x) = (e^ix - e^-ix)/2i. Hyperbolic trig suddenly makes sense, which is useful over a year after finishing it. The weird equation for the normal curve from statistics starts to make more sense, because e^(-xx)=(e^(ix))^ix, which helps explain the 1/sqrt(2pi) weirdness. I start to understand why the most beautiful equation has its name. I think that most math is cumulative, but only some parts are hard enough to make you notice it.