

Ask HN: Developers often need to solve mathematical optimization problems? - leoplct

For developers:
When you develop application, do you have often need to solve a mathematical/optimization problems?<p>Give me some examples...
======
ajuc
Depends on the app you are writing. For example - in my daily work I've used
math more complicated than computing average/sum of numbers only a few times
in 5 years. Once it was geometry on a plane when writing code for pathfinding
in a warehouse (great fun :) ), other times it was mostly to calculate amounts
of goods based on something (mostly converting units, calculating volumes, etc
- basic stuff).

My hobby is wrtiing games, mostly 2d, but I've tried doing 3d too, and there
you use math much more often. Mostly 2d/3d geometry, integration for game
physic (for most purposes naive Euler integration suffices, and it's really
simple, you can invent it without knowing about physics, nor what integral is,
but still - it's math). Also requires math - collision checking, ai, space
indexing, pathfinding.

When optimizing something, basic statistic is handy, but not required. And
sometimes it's nice to be able to come up with Fermi-style estimate of
something - like how much cpu time/memory you will need if you make this
initial decision or that.

~~~
leoplct
Thanks! It was interesting

------
bdfh42
My current app involves location and mapping using multiple co-ordinate
systems - so trigonometry on a curved surface for starters.

~~~
leoplct
May you provide me more detailed information about the problem that you're
solving? You can also email me at: napster3000 gmail.com Thanks

------
aquarin
My current app involves optimization (main point of the app actually) that
fits squares in shapes in a certain way.

~~~
leoplct
May you provide me more detailed information about the problem that you're
solving? You can also email me at: napster3000 gmail.com Thanks

