For the first fifteen years of my career in software, I barely used algebra. Web development requires plenty of abstract reasoning, but not higher math. Since working on autonomous vehicles, however, I constantly find myself revisiting topics I last touched in high school.
Pythagorean Theorem is a great example.
a*a + b*b = c*c
When on earth would you actually use this in “real life?” A few years ago I might have said never. Now I use it all the time.
Imagine I’m trying to calculate a vehicle’s acceleration, and the sensors tells me it’s accelerating 1 meter per second in the x-direction and 0.5 meters per second in the y-direction. What is the acceleration in the vehicle’s own frame of reference?
I’d use Pythagorean Theorem to find the answer. You can try it with an online calculator. What’d you get?
David Silver 