Abstract
In a well-run computer course, the student does many exercises. He should also do at least one problem. The distinction is this: An exercise relates to a specific technique, and the approach is usually spelled out. A problem, on the other hand, will involve a broad goal, using many techniques, and with very little spelled out.—Fred Greunberger (RAND) and George Jaffray (Los Angeles Valley College), Problems for Computer Solution (John Wiley, 1965), page xv.
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- 1.
Currently on the Internet you can find a wonderful set of C.S. articles and book reviews by computer scientist and journalist Brian Hayes. Just type in Brian Hayes - American Scientist or go to http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/brian-hayes .
- 2.
Steve Maguire, Writing Solid Code (Microsoft Press, 1993), pages 100–101.
- 3.
Did this justification of the trillionth seem valid to you? It did to me when I first wrote it, but later I realized that it is little more than nice-sounding words. I classify stuff like this as metaphysics, which in my opinion is another word for nonsense. “Metaphysics, that fertile field of delusion propagated by language…”—J.S. Mill. “Commit it [any book of metaphysics] then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.”—David Hume. The following is a metaphysical joke, which, I think, shows metaphysics is one step away from crazy.
When the great French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was young, he asked his uncle if he could work as a waiter Saturday afternoons in his uncle’s café so he could make some pocket change. The uncle, who already knew young Sartre to be strange, was hesitant, but decided to give his nephew a practice run. “Memorize today’s menu and I’ll test you,” said the uncle. Sartre took an unusually long time to study the menu, and even insisted on verifying it with the kitchen. But eventually he completed the task. “Put on this apron, wait on the customer over there, and I will watch you,” said his uncle. Sartre complied and approached the customer. “How may I help you, sir?” queried the young Sartre. “Bring me a cup of coffee, without cream,” replied the customer. “We are out of cream,” said Sartre. “May I bring you a cup of coffee without milk?”
- 4.
For a readable and interesting discussion, see Wikipedia s.v.” Bertrand’s box paradox.” This article references other simple-to-state puzzles with counterintuitive answers, which make excellent practice problems for high school computer science students.
- 5.
inference, rules of. Methods of deduction (which are assumed not to lead to error), usually combined with axioms (which are believed not to be inconsistent) in a careful manner (which is hoped not to involve a mistake) that produce theorems (which are presumed not to be paradoxical) in the study of mathematics—the science whose conclusions are considered absolutely certain. [In other words, deduction is ultimately based on induction.]
- 6.
Source: Gerald S. Goodman, “The Problem of the Broken Stick,” The Mathematical Intelligencer, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Springer, 2008), pages 43–49. I have slightly reworded the question for our purposes. The line after the semicolon originally read “shew that the probability of its being possible to form a triangle with the pieces is ¼.”
- 7.
My favorite way to describe computer science is to say that it is the study of algorithms.—Donald E. Knuth, “Computer Science and Its Relation to Mathematics,” American Mathematical Monthly (April, 1974), page 323.
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© 2018 Michael Stueben
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Stueben, M. (2018). Problems Worth Solving. In: Good Habits for Great Coding. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3459-4_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3459-4_19
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