Comment by saithound
2 hours ago
Astrology and Haskell are quite similar in that both are much much easier to do if you have a math degree.
2 hours ago
Astrology and Haskell are quite similar in that both are much much easier to do if you have a math degree.
Ok, I'll bite. How does a math degree help with astrology?
The starting point of casting a horoscope is calculating the apparent locations (this means "where you would have seen them had you looked up there and then") of a whole bunch of celestial objects at the time and place where a particular person was born.
You won't (write software to) do that without knowing a whole bunch of linear algebra and ODEs.
The fortune-telling part is not what needs the math degree.
Are you sure? I can see for Astronomy that's a branch of physics so sure, there's loads of tricky practical mathematics so if you're bad at mathematics you'll get stuff wrong, but surely for Astrology since it's just bullshit anyway you don't need to do mathematics as it wouldn't make a difference?
A horoscope is a fine mixture of fortune-telling bullshit and verifiable astronomical facts. The latter have the form of "where the celestial bodies could be seen at the hour of the client's birth", or "does Jupiter currently appear to be moving forward or backward in the sky".
The average Visual Basic programmer and the world's best mathematician are going to be about equally good at writing the fortune-telling part, but the mathematician will have a much easier time getting the factual part right.