[plt-scheme] Math prerequisites for SICP

SICP assumes a substantial level of math maturity for mathematical  
freshmen in the US. It also introduces you to domain knowledge from  
mathematical application domains at a high pace. Learning this kind  
of material is imperative, if you want to be really good especially  
at constructing large, real systems in an engineering world. Learning  
it is also good if you want to construct less interesting system in  
the future.

Recommendation: do the math-y sections in HTDP. This will give you a  
flavor of the kind of mathematics you get in SICP, even though there  
are non-overlapping examples in each. I would especially focus on the  
examples from calculus (numeric differentiation, integration, taylor  
series etc) but the graph traversal (network flow) things are good  
for you too. Once you are at east with those, you can tackle SICP and  
get through fast

-- Matthias





On Feb 12, 2009, at 5:52 AM, Andrei Estioco wrote:

> How much math do I need to know to understand SICP? We used HtDP  
> last semester (June-October '08) although we skipped the parts that  
> required some actual math, especially calculus. We focused more on  
> the "algorithm" aspect of the book.
>
> I've leafed through the first few pages of SICP and found out that  
> it tackled the big O way earlier that HtDP. We touched big O  
> lightly last semester. How much math do I need to understand this?
>
> We only started on calculus this semester (November '08 - March  
> '09). As of this writing our current topic is the definite  
> integral. Is that enough (for the big O and everything else SICP) ?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -- 
> Chad Estioco
> BS Computer Science
> University of the Philippines-Diliman
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