sufficient amount of computer science a pure mathematics student would need to know

Question

I am a master’s pure mathematics student. Recently I have been studying just a bit of discrete geometry (e.g. configurations of points) and I seem to be enjoying it in that its ideas are simply expressed while inside many relavant open problems abound.

However, I think that in order to better appreciate discrete geometry and facilitate problem solving in this area one should know computer science.

As most of my time is devoted to smooth geometry, I do not have enough time for delving into computer science. How much of computer science and of a programming language like Python I should learn in order to study discrete geometry more professionally?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Rather than Python, you might choose software that has built-in rich 2D & 3D graphics, for quick investigations to see if a lemma might be true are often more useful in research than writing industrial-strength code for a larger task. Some possibilities:

• Mathematica
• Sage
• Matlab
• Even though Geogebra is not a general-purpose language, it is still quite useful for explorations.

I know one can add libraries to Python to create high-quality graphics, but they are less built-in so there is generally more overhead in usage.