Week 3: First Assignment Due

Its the end of the 3rd week and our first assignment is due soon, however since I spent a couple of hours on the assignment each day this week I am nearly done the assignment. But before the due date its always good look back on the questions and go over your solutions again which is what I plan to do.

Summary of stuff we did this week

• At the beginning of the week we went over some new logical connectivities such as conjunctions, disjunctions and negation.

• We also went over the scope of quantifier and precedence of logical connectivities.

• We also looked over some laws to to show how some logical notation can be equivalent .

• Then we finally went over truth tables and DeMorgan's Law.

• We had also finished chapter 2 and moved on to problem solving where we learned the steps that should be taken when tackling a problem.

Current feelings about the course

I actually feel a little more confident with the course than I did last week because by spending some time on this course each day got me familiarized with different logical notations and laws that feel very natural to me now, when I look at a sentence and logical notation.

I also find that by summarizing what you learn each week is a good strategy to stay on top of what you you should know in the course at the end of each week.

I also find that the new questions on the course website are great to solidify and practice what you already know and looking for other online resources are also very good to help understand certain lessons that seem a bit confusing. Hopefully they have helped anyone who has been having a little difficulty with the assignment. 

Week 2: End of the week

It is the end of the second week and i had just finished studying logic and expressions. I have read a little ahead of the class, which includes stuff on conjunctions, disjunctions, and negations. However I still find it pretty difficult in translating certain complex logical notations. I have also started on the assignment but I hadn't had much luck since I am not so sure on some of my answers for the questions. So I decided to go hunting for information on the internet since the course notes on the website has a very limited amount of information.

Some Things that I find should be improved in the Course Notes 

• There should be some sample problems and solutions at the end of each section in order to give us a chance to practice a new notation that we learn so that we can have a good idea on how it can be translated from its logical notation to English and vice versa. 

• I also think that the implication section of the course notes should have more information about it since it can be a tricky notation to spot within a English sentence.

Tips and Extra Sources

As I was searching the internet for some sources I found a few websites that show how to understand basic logical notations and how to translate them. They are located below.

• http://www.millersville.edu/~bikenaga/math-proof/logical-connectives/logical-connectives.html
• http://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/math/geometry/GP1/negatecompound.htm
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Formal_Logic/Sentential_Logic/Translations

Hopefully this will help with some issues in understanding basic logic notation and Good Luck.

Week 1: Beginning of CSC165

To be honest, first day back at UofT after a long winter break hibernating in my soft and comfortable bed at home made me feel a little nervous. Knowing that I will be starting a new course that I heard from other students to be extremely challenging. However all those nervous feelings start to disappear or dissolve over the first week, making it easier to get more focused throughout the rest of the winter session.

I definitely found the introduction lecture of CSC165 to be very helpful because it gave a lot more insight about the course and why we should even consider taking it as computer scientists:

What is CSC165?

• A course about expression and communication

Which is definitely helpful for reading other people's program, understanding developers and understanding yourself when you communicate with others.

Why CSC165? 

• memorize math ===> Sort of or Only some theorems
• have trouble explaining what your doing in technical work ===> Yes
• have trouble understanding word problems ===> Definitely

All of these questions have made me realize that I definitely need this course more than I thought.

Topics We Went Over

We also looked at a couple of topics to introduce us into the course such as the double meaning. This topic was to help us understand the meaning of ambiguity and how it can lead to a lot of misunderstanding between  people trying to write statements that can specify what a program does. I would have to agree that understanding the specifications of a program is a common problem among computer scientists which makes this course very important for these situations.We went over the properties of a set and how it differs from a list.We also started on quantifications at the end of the week to help us determine the difference between a universal and existential claim/quantification.

Final Thoughts and Advice

So far the course seems interesting and helpful in specified and clear communication strategies. The only helpful advice right at this moment in the course is make sure that you read and understand the Chapter 1: Introduction in the course note link, located on the course website. You will definitely need it for future lessons. Good Luck to everyone.