MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE
Technology is the most important concept in today’s
progressive world; and computing systems are the
touchstones of this developing sector. Computing
systems include today’s smart phones, computers, TV’s
etc. In a short way computing technology constitutes
an important part of our life. Most of the people think
that computing system is a completely new concept
for humanity; but from the raising of the notion
“mathematics” the word “computer” began to develop.
The evolution of mathematics caused a sudden
development on computing systems at the beginning of
the 20th century. With this development a new discipline
called Computer Science has recently arrived on the
scene at today’s education. This new working discipline
is directly connected to the essentials of mathematics.
Computer Science is basically the study of algorithms.
An Algorithm is precisely- defined sequence of rules
telling how to produce specified output information
from the given input information in a finite number
of steps. (Donald E. Khunt, Computer Science and Its
Relation to Mathematics). This algorithm concept is
used in Computer Science as programs and each of
the information used as the data of the program which
shows that Computer Science should have existed much
long ago the advent of computers.
Beside this information, numerical equations are not
the only thing that Computer Science deals with. The
French word for Computer Science is “Informatique”;
the German word is “Informatik” which shows that
Computer Science deals with many things besides the
solutions of numerical values. Computer Science works
with any input values like symbols and characters which
are defined to the system before; which creates an
argument about the name of this field as “Computer
science or computing science?” The search of an
appropriate name for this working discipline is going to
be pointless; because the underlying the importance of
the field is much more important than the name of it.
Beside this fact, computer science is a discipline that
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is not made up of math at all. Mathematics is just a
part of this gigantic world because computer science is
about everything which is relevant to mechanisms and
computing as hardware and software.
If we turn back to our main concept we should ask
this negotiable question: “ Is computer science part
of mathematics?”. “Certainly there are phenomena
about computers which are now being actively
studied by computer scientists, and which are hardly
mathematical.” says Donald E. Knuth by creating a
questionable idea about the relation of math and
computing. From my perspective without math there
won’t be any kind of computing system. The first
computer language was made up of 0 and 1’s which give
some sort of basic commands. Even in today’s modern
computer languages such as C++ and PHP there are data
codes like “int”, which stands for integer; “char”, which
stands for character. Also, the basic rules and systems on
these programing languages directly connected to the
main working fields of math. The main working principle
on C++ is loops, algorithms and Booleans. Boolean is the
“if” statement that considers about the correctness of a
function and/or equation which is given by the users or
the programmer. A loop is the replay of an algorithmic
statement which creates the most important notion for
the programing languages. Algorithm is not the only
sub topic which point outs the relation between math
and computer science; but it is the simplest form of this
relation which can be understood by everyone.
In conclusion, the similarity between mathematics
and computer science can be seen by the university
educational system. Computer science is not a new
discipline; that is specialized from mathematics by the
development of mechanical computing systems. Still
there are some experts that advocate the computer
science as a branch of mathematics; because this
discipline is built on the fundamentals of mathematical
rules and theories. Even though there is a direct
relationship between math and Computer Science,
computer system is a complex system that includes the
synthesis of several workspaces and math is only one of
these work fields which makes computer science as an
independent work field.
Neslişah Zeynep DEMİRCİ
9-B
References:
Donald E. Khunt,
Computer Science and Its Relation to Mathematics