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Ask HN: What to learn for math for modeling?

70 points shivajikobardan | 1 comments | 27 Aug 25 07:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.255s | source

parametric cubic curve

boundary representation

blending function

spline

b-spline

cubic bezier curve

de casteljau algorithm

I have been diving into these topics since few days and I have not understood anything. I tried peter shirley's textbook on Computer Graphics. Foley et al, Hearn baker etc...

It is clear to me that I lack the mathematics preriquisites for understanding this. Thus, I am deeply asking for resources that I can do to brush up. Me being a computer engineering graduate I have done math classes, it is just that I became like a calculator instead of understanding the logic behind doing the formulas and steps so need a short revision.

1. rramadass ◴[29 Aug 25 04:45 UTC] No.45060305[source]▶
What you are trying to learn/understand falls under the rubric of Scientific Computing/Numerical Methods/Numerical Analysis/Numerical Algorithms. The mathematics underpinning them is quite wide but mostly Linear Algebra and Calculus. You might find the following useful for your study;

1) Scientific Computing by Michael Heath - Classic text covering a broad swath of domains and tries to build motivation/intuition before the mathematics (affordable Indian edition available).

2) Mathematical Principles for Scientific Computing and Visualization by Gerald Farin and Dianne Hansford - Nice overview of needed background. The authors also have a book named Practical Linear Algebra: A Geometry Toolbox which you might find a ideal companion.

3) Numerical Methods: Fundamentals and Applications by Rajesh Kumar Gupta - A relatively recent book with a really broad coverage of subjects and detailed mathematical expositions (affordable Indian edition available).

4) Numerical Algorithms: Methods for Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and Graphics by Justin Solomon - Good explanations (affordable Indian edition available). Free ebook available at https://people.csail.mit.edu/jsolomon/

5) Finally, Mathematics for Physicists: Introductory Concepts and Methods by Alexander Altland and Jan Von Delft is an excellent book to have as a reference. It has three sections viz. Linear Algebra, Calculus and Vector Calculus. The presentation is very precise, does not focus on proofs/lemmas but on concepts and covers a wide swath of important mathematics.