Vectors with Video Games (Spring 2015)
Course description
Video games are probably the most fun and creative projects in the world of computer programming. It is not hard to get into computer programming with very little math background--lots of people pick up programming as a hobby before taking high school math--and many games (Tetris, chess, even Mario or Pokémon) can be programmed with only basic math skills.
Many of the most successful games, however, take place in three-dimensional worlds. If you want to make a game like Minecraft, Skyrim, or Call of Duty (to name a few), there's one bit of math that can incredibly useful to know: vectors. This is a topic that is frequently glossed over in high school math, but shows up in a suprising variety of subjects. This class will cover some of the intuitions and applications of vectors that are needed to build video games, while along the way discussing the video game industry and computer science in general.
This will be a lecture-style class; due to equipment and time constraints, we won't be able to do individual, "hands-on" programming, but the class will include bits of realistic code and some cool demos. I'll put any code I write online so students can look at it after the class is over.