Is there any benefits to learning calculus for computer programming?

Well, I am 30 years old, and I have taken Calculus courses 10 years ago, yet, I haven't encountered a Calculus stuff in my current position.

But the question is what if I encounter? do I regret of not taking it? or a relief that I had taken?
This should be the question of yours whether it's web or smartphones, you may end up with calculating integration or a differential stuff. Yet, I don't think you will face them, but what if?

Except for problems that explicitly require calculus (mathematical models eg., or some 3d programming, ...), you won't encounter it very often in your programming endeavours. Of course, it all depends in what area you'll be programming.

There are more generally useful mathematical domains for programming, like logic, or statistics, or ...

Not very motivational, but thanks for your honesty. I'm still wondering what it could be used for down the road if I went out of my way to use that calculus knowledge for something that may even be non-career related with no knowledge in any of the other sciences.

How useful is it in 3d programming with no knowledge of the other sciences? Is it still possible to apply it for something like a 3d interface with no knowledge of physics?

>> How useful is it in 3d programming

For calculating normals to a surface eg. (used for light, bump mapping, etc.).

But you can get by without knowledge of calculus for most things (either use an existing implementation, or implement an existing formula, or ...).


I'd ask myself a different question : "am I interested in learning calculus ?" If yes, then go for it. If no, then I recommend learning something that does interest you ;)

I guess I don't know if I'm interested. I don't know enough about its applications and how it could be useful for me.

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus#Applications

;)

Calculus is the foundation for some much more interesting stuff such as Fourier Transforms: converting between the time and frequency domains.   Ok these things can be looked up in tables, but having the basics under your belt helps with determining whether an answer is realistic or not.

The wikipedia article on Fourier Transforms is much more impenetrable than Infinity's one for calculus.  I'll stick to these two links:-

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/fourier.jpg
http://members.optushome.com.au/walshjj/transform_pairs.gif

Here's a fairly readable article:-

http://www.relisoft.com/science/Physics/sound.html

re: 3d programming
No doubt you would want your 3d objects to move about. So, calculus includes basic physics so that if, for example, you throw a bouncing ball forward, you would understand the basics of how to program it. There are formulas everywhere, but the hard part is understanding how these formulas can be adapted to the 3d model that you are working with. Another hard part in applying the formulas, is trying to debug your program when it seems like the formula is not working - for example, the formula may have constraints that you are not fully appreciative of.

So, going into 3d programming could be a major decision. After learning calculus, a basic course in linear algebra could also be useful, depending upon how deep you wish to pursue this path.

Knowledge of mathematics in general tends to give you a different view on the world. It will help you in certain situations where you least expected it (before you learned maths). So I'd say it's always useful to know as much as you can.

But that's me ... You might have an entirely different idea of things. Your goals might lie elsewhere.

I develop market research software which uses special and customized charts and graphs as well as integrations. I use Calculus, Fourier transformations, approximations, integrals and a lot of stuff.

Even back when I developed simple trajectory games for personal fun, I used physics which is based on calculus.

It's very interesting. However, if you are good in math, there are a lot of websites that can get you brushed up on things in no time if you do not wish to study calculus at univeristy.