Blog 6 - Computer science and math

Ryan Chen

4/17/17

Computer Science & Mathematics

There are many mathematical concept I’m interested in but the most interesting concept for me in computer science would have to be the algorithm because it’s the one I’m the most familiar with and we did an activity in class with it which I thought was fun. This mathematical concept relates to computer science by the way a computer thinks it takes a step by step process. For example if you were to ask a computer to sort out a deck of cards from ace to kings every time cards get moved around like moving kings to the right side the computer ask a question each time is the king greater than the card it is moving passed.

The algorithm I think that connects the most with math is the computer algebra and geometry section of algorithms that is listed on the list of algorithm section in wikipedia because they are math words that are directly related to algorithms. There are a lot of algorithms that makes sense but I feel the one that makes the most sense when apply to a computer is the closest pair of points problem under the geometry algorithms. It’s a problem of computational geometry given n points in metric space the computer finds the pair of points with the smallest distance in between them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closest_pair_of_points_problem). For example if there are 2 points (2,6) and (5,6) and another 2 points at (3,8) and (4,8) the computer would point out the (3,8) and (4,8) are the points closer to each other. This algorithm I think makes the most sense to a computer because it makes the most sense to me, it didn’t took to long for me to understand it from reading it right away compare to the other algorithms.

The theoretical computer science I find most interest to me is the coding theory because of the name and the reason I’m taking this as a major is trying to learn how to code. It’s also interesting to me that it has a lot of scientific disciplines such as math, electrical engineering, and information theory. Coding theory is the study of the properties of codes and their fitness for a specific application stated on the wikipedia article on the dropbox. I also find that the machine learning topic on theoretical computer science is interesting because I would like to know how a machine learns not just what it learns. This topic deals with the construction and study of algorithm that can learn from data.

There are lots of things that related to closely to mathematics in the textbooks we read like from patterns on the stones where the MIT student talks about his roommate that was pairing his socks to match each one (P.77) because it dealt with algorithms. Also in the textbook we are currently reading right now the 9 algorithms that changed the future where it talks about paint mixing with numbers because it deals with multiplying and dividing numbers (P.48-51). There are also reading in the textbook that deals with math problems that can’t be solve like the traveling salesman problem in pattern on the stones.

There are many computer science pioneers that are important to both math and computer science. Some of them would have to be for example Charles Babbage because he is one of the first pioneers in computing. He designed a calculator that can compute numbers up to twenty decimal places. Alan Turing is also one of the person that is important to both math and computer science because it invented the turing machine. The turing machine deals with algorithms and computation which are mathematics.

blog 5 - TUBES

Ryan Chen

4/2/17

TUBES

The book tubes I thought was a good book for people who would love to know about the internet or the history of where it came from. From me the book was a little interesting and boring at the same time because it had a lot of information they give you have you can’t remember it all. I feel like I wasn’t engaged in the book was because it’s a book trying to educate you not like a storytelling book that doesn’t educate you with all the information. It’s not as bad as other education books where they just talk about educational things while this book gives a little story while he is traveling while giving educational facts about the internet.

The most interesting thing I learned was when the author went to ucla in chapter 2 and talked about MAE-East (P.60) because I didn’t know there were Metropolitan Area Exchange which happened to be the internet exchange point. I didn’t know much of how internet worked or there has to be exchange points around the country in order to have internet. The book didn’t really explain much about MAE so I googled it and I learned there are 3 major MAEs which are east, west, and central on techtarget.com. There are also two central MAEs for frame encapsulation service in Chicago and New York.

The parts I didn’t like about the book was the little detailed information that didn’t seem interesting to me like when he stated he was checking his phone while eating an apple. It was sentences that didn’t needed to be included in the book because it had nothing to do with the internet unless if it was something interesting happened while he was traveling like “I saw a big collision outside the parking lot”.

Before reading the book I knew nothing about the internet but after I read it I felt like I learned a few things about it like how the internet is a fiber with thin glass strands filled with pulses of light (P.158). The book talked about the history of the internet if where it is build and how it works. I didn’t have any questions before reading the book and any questions that comes in my head after I was done reading the book.

I would definitely recommend this book to a friend if they are interested about the internet because the book is an interesting story about a man who is trying to find out how internet works. It would be different from other books in my opinion because he talks about his trip that he took unlike some books might just give you the history and facts about internet so all the facts without a story might be more boring in a book.

What I think is significant about the book is that it gives a story about one person traveling to different places like ucla or Milwaukee finding stuff about the internet. The difference about this book and other books about the internet is the story won’t be the same because it’s based off of what one person did. I think this book was chosen for the class was because it’s about the internet and internet has to do with computer science and on top of the book it also says national bestseller so why wouldn’t you want a good selling book for a class. I’ve notice that for the last book chosen for the class POTS for every reading we did the next day of lecture the topic about the reading was covered in class but for this book the topic about the books reading wasn’t covered in class.

"What Is MAE? - Definition from WhatIs.com." SearchNetworking. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.