I've been searching through my old notes and trying my best to get back on track, seeing how four monthes of a very relaxing summer has finally caught up with me. Regardless, I was really happy with how I did in CSC165 last semester and I've actually been looking forward to being in CSC236. Using proofs and logic is something I never thought I'd enjoy, but now that I've finally got it, I love it. I'm now able to understand and solve problems that I never think I would've before. Last year's class also helped me relearn the fundamental rules of math that I chose to ignore throughout highschool, which is why instead of being scared and unsure like I was at the beginning of CSC165 -- I'm confident and excited to see how I do in 236.
Now I'm not going to lie, simple induction isn't really my thing. I understand all of the examples in class, but finding the forumla for the induction step is what seems to give me trouble. I worry that I won't be able to get to the answer without Danny up at the board going step by step through the solution. Eventually I'm sure I'll be able to find some sort of pattern or strategy, but for now it's just somewhat of a struggle. The same thing happened to me last year with proofs, so I guess in the end all it takes is time and a lot of practise.
I'm going to begin working on Problem Set 1 tommorow and then take a look at the 1st Assignment at the beginning of the week. The questions in the first problem set seem familiar to what we've been doing in class. Finding the base case is usually straight-forward for me (...until Danny mentioned the possibiliy of more then one, or in some cases none ... haha) it's just using all the cases to form the formula ... or equation ... the Induction step, basically.. that's we're the trouble comes in.
I'm sure the course-work will pick up a lot this week with more examples and topics to learn. I'll probably be posting in this blog once a week, like I did last semester. Maybe a couple of in-between posts too. I think that worked out pretty well. Anyway, better get to work! Cya.
1 comment:
Finding the mechanism that makes the induction step work is where the art comes into induction. Otherwise, a computer program could, in most cases, check the base case and wrap everything in some sort of proof structure. In that case, all sort of theoreticians would be out of work.
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