On April 14, 2015, John Abreau wrote: >As I recall, all the math classes I took before calculus could essentially >be summarized as "here's a bunch of magic formulas[...]" >Calculus is the key to truly understanding mathematics in >depth. Those other "alternatives", like Probability, would be nothing >more than another set of memorized magic in the absence of calculus.
You've identified an important distinction, but I believe you've misattributed the source. This isn't a difference between the content of precalculus and calculus. It's a difference between shallow and in-depth courses; e.g., between high school classes and university level math. Any flavor of mathematics can be taught in depth. My university courses in algebra, numerical analysis, probability, combinatorics, computational geometry, etc., were filled with rich detail, not memorization. Any of these topics (in my opinion) would be suitable as a CS student's first thought-provoking, mind-expanding university course in math. Calculus plays that role today because a bunch of people did it that way, and now "we've always done it that way." Most people with a college education probably associate algebra with rote memorizing of the quadratic formula. It's definitely more than that. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_theory for an example. -- Dan Barrett dbarr...@blazemonger.com _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
