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.