Sunday 30 November 2014

week 12

woo! this was our last week of classes! it is hard to believe that the semester is nearly over.

This week we learned about countability and induction. We learned about mapping which I wish we had began learning earlier since it was an easy concept for me to grasp. Countability was comparing the size of two sets which is essentially what mapping does. it compares the sets to make sure that easch x maps to a unique y, each y is mapped to at most one x and every y has some x that maps to it. This was a concept I really understood and enjoyed.

This week I also worked hard on the third assignment. This one was by far the hardest of the three (although I suppose thats what would be expected). The thing I had most trouble with were the question 3 and 4 that discussed limits. I've learned that this is definitely a concept I need to go back and study again.

Seeing as this was the last lecture and tutorial week the only thing left is the final! I am quite nervous seeing as this will be my very first final in all of university however that gives me a lot of time to study for it :)

Friday 21 November 2014

week 11

No lecture or tutorial this week but i continued studying up and practising writing proofs 👍 🎅

Saturday 15 November 2014

week 10

This week we reviewed a lot of the materials from last week. We reviewed big-Oh proofs for polynomials (standard procedure with over/underestimates) big-Oh proofs for non-polynomials (need
to use limits and L’Hopital’s rule). We practiced doing more proofs which is always helpful seeing as it is clearly one of the most important aspects in this course. I find these practise proofs helpful in remembering to use comments and what to write in these comments seeing as we seem to get marked a lot on the comments that we include.
 This week we also began learning about computability. We learned that computers solve problems using algorithms, but some problems are not easy to solve using an algorithm. This was demonstrated through halting. It is not possible for computers to solve the halting problem because the problem leads in a contradiction. We also discussed how reductions can be used to show that other functions are non computable.

Saturday 8 November 2014

week 9

This week we did more big omega proofs and big o proofs for general function. We also discussed over estimation and under estimation tricks which mr. zhang emphasized would be very important for future tests and finals. Some over estimation tricks  were to remove a negative terms and multiply a positive term. Under estimation tricks included removing a positive term and multiplying a negative term. We discussed big oh proofs for polynomials which was the standard procedure with under and over estimations, as well as big oh proofs for non polynomials which require the use of limits and l'Hopitals rule. We also covered proofs for general big- oh statements which were picking b and c based on known b's and c's.

Saturday 1 November 2014

week 8

This week we discussed definitions of big o and omega and also the worst cases of these two algorithms. These things i found to be more difficult than things we learned in previous weeks. This is definitely something that I will need to go over more on my own and maybe visit office hours for.However I do find these concepts interesting so I am hopeful that I will pick up on them quickly.

I have also been working on assignment two alot this week which i am finding more difficult than assignment one but I think it is still going okay, There is also the second midterm for this course coming up next week so I am going to be spending a lot of my time studying and practicing more of these proofs.