I just read this article about the Physics of Angry Birds in Wired Magazine on-line: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/physics-of-angry-birds/ It made me think about how such 'simple' looking games are programmed and the maths and geometry built in...
Programming is generally fairly unmathematical – sure, it may seem like a similar type of activity that similar types of people might perform, but without the maths component, programming is quite limited to instructions and functions devoid of physical behaviours – motion, shape and change over time...
The better a programmer understands maths as well as programming, the better the motion is going to be, which is why a lot of programs and games seem to have rather clunky motion... the programmer simply wasn't that good at maths.
Any good coder ought to have a pretty good maths qualification to complement their programming abilities. Ask for their resume. Look for the evidence of mathematical genius. :-) We have used a couple of maths genius coders over the years – and it makes a huge difference to how their finished work turns out. Everything is smoother, and their ability to get things done is far better than programmers who only learned programming code.
Most animation and video programs, such as Adobe After Effects or Flash have the ability to key in mathematical formulas, outside of their standard presets (which are largely mathematical in foundation as well). Anyone who knows how to get in and tweak the formulas is going to have a whole new level of control and ability to perform what you might require.
Programming is powerful, but throw in some pure maths and you make magic happen.
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