Has anyone else taken it? (I guess besides Lothar and Drak, I already know that you guys have to have taken it) It's giving me trouble these days. the whole vector space stuff kinda poses the question "why?" for me. I mean, that's nice, you define a vector space, and then you see if something fits within that space according to a certain set of criterian. I don't get what you're really proving. Anyways, it kinda baffles me, and I'm not looking forward to the next test. It's all just too abstract for my liking. Anyone else agree? Anyone care to enlighten me as to the potential value of it all in real life applications? Just for the heck of it, I'll make this into a poll.
Edit: Guess my "What's Linear Algebra" option didn't make it in- oops.
Linear Algebra
Lin Alg was the last math class I ever took, since CS generally doesn't require Differential Equations. 
And it was one of the easiest next to Calc II, what do you find hard about it? After I took it, I understood how 3D graphics on the computer are achieved and it made me respect people like Carmack and Sweeney even more. Which is really cool.
And it was one of the easiest next to Calc II, what do you find hard about it? After I took it, I understood how 3D graphics on the computer are achieved and it made me respect people like Carmack and Sweeney even more. Which is really cool.
I use it at my work to find the coefficients of polynomials for interpolation. We build a table of values from a laser sensor and a table of values in millimeters, and use a 3rd order poly to interpolate between them. It only takes 18 or so table entries with poly interpolation to be as good as 100 linear table entries. Computer graphics stuff is all about some linear algebra too, like rotation and scaling matrices. If you ever do any programming in OpenGL, you use matrices to move objects around in space, to set the 'camera' view, etc etc.
heh, the first time I took lin alg. The prof. let us use TI-89s, I ended that class with like 98%. Eigen vectors, values, indentiy matrix, going from one space to another, etc are all just one button away!
Easiest A in college by far.
But then in my mathmatical methods of Physics course, I had to learn how to do it all without a Calculator. Got an A in that class too, but had to work 100x harder for it.
Easiest A in college by far.
But then in my mathmatical methods of Physics course, I had to learn how to do it all without a Calculator. Got an A in that class too, but had to work 100x harder for it.
Gotta love AP physics. Today, while most of the students are still taking AP calc, my teacher, during the course of explaining conservation of angular momentum, jumps into cross products and immediately writes a 3x3 matrix on the board, then takes the determinant to find the components of the cross product, as if everyone in the room understands this. I got as far as knowing that vertical bars around a matrix mean "determinant". Most people were clueless as to what a matrix was.
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Mobius
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Newton's Forward Difference Interpolation, anyone?
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/NewtonsFor ... rmula.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/NewtonsFor ... rmula.html
lol @ all you fancy high school people. I can understand the value in all the conversion matrix stuff- matricies are fine. What I don't like is the whole vector space stuff.
I took AB AP calc, got a 5, yet there's still alot of stuff that I didn't know in the way of math.
Jeff- do you have a separate diff eq class? If you don't I'm betting you'll be hitting diff eq's. (Or maybe even PDE's) Otherwise, did you see partial derivatives and double/triple integrals?
I took AB AP calc, got a 5, yet there's still alot of stuff that I didn't know in the way of math.
Jeff- do you have a separate diff eq class? If you don't I'm betting you'll be hitting diff eq's. (Or maybe even PDE's) Otherwise, did you see partial derivatives and double/triple integrals?
Yeah, there's a seperate differential equation class, but it wouldn't surprise me. We also hit triple integrals in Calc3, although there's not going to be any DE's or PDE's. I spoke with my advisor yesterday, and she said there'd be no harm. The only reason I'm considering taking it now is because I need the extra credit hour. Looks like the Math Department website is down, but I think I remember it saying something about rigorous single-variable Calculus and proofs.snoopy wrote:lol @ all you fancy high school people. I can understand the value in all the conversion matrix stuff- matricies are fine. What I don't like is the whole vector space stuff.
I took AB AP calc, got a 5, yet there's still alot of stuff that I didn't know in the way of math.
Jeff- do you have a separate diff eq class? If you don't I'm betting you'll be hitting diff eq's. (Or maybe even PDE's) Otherwise, did you see partial derivatives and double/triple integrals?
I took a paper that included basic linear algebra early this year... wasn't too bad, although the ideas of matrices took getting used to. (And I can no longer remember the determinant rules... ah well, they're simple enough to revise.) Vectors weren't so bad.
It also included some odd second-order differential equations, but I haven't hit PDEs yet and sort of doubt I'm going to...
It also included some odd second-order differential equations, but I haven't hit PDEs yet and sort of doubt I'm going to...