SLOG 2: Week 3

This week in CSC165, we're continuing to utilize quantifiers to make universal and existential claims. However, we're now discussing the topics of conjunction, disjunction, negation, and implication. I'm still finding it difficult to convey human thoughts and expressions into mathematical ones, especially given that there are multiple formats that we can express these ideas.

Set notation, predicates, and implications are all used to produce mathematical statements. Thus far, we have been proving equivalencies using both truth tables and logical arithmetic. I have found the Table 2.17 on pg 29 of the course notes for CSC165 to be invaluable in keeping me on track with answering tutorial and assignment questions. 

Some realizations that I have made include: the equivalency of an inverse (not A implies not B) to a converse (B implies A). I have also come to realize that a contrapositive (not Q implies not P) is equivalent to P implies Q.  

Some goals I hope to accomplish over the course of the next few weeks:
1) Becoming more adept at proving equivalencies. 
2) Being able to recognize equivalencies that are listed in Table 2.17 on sight 
3) Allow myself to think more intuitively so that CSC165 is less of a challenge 

SLOG 1: Week 2

Needless to say, the past two weeks have been a tumultuous start to my my undergraduate career. In summary: relearning old material, and learning new material -- with a dash of chaos and disorder mixed in between.

I am taking CSC165 in conjunction with a couple of other related courses. The classes that I find most relevent are CSC108(Intro to Computer Programming) and MAT223(Linear Algebra I). CSC165 places an emphasis on logical thought and reasoning: it is about expressing yourself precisely and without ambiguity, utilizing mathematical notation to communicate yourself. CSC108 is also focused on expressing human ideas in a new computer language(Python). Alternately, MAT223 is not about converting human ideas and expressions into a new "language"; instead, we are learning about utilizing echelon matrices to convert mathematical equations into a form in which we can easily solve a system of linear equations. Although I do not know enough about my courses to accurately represent or summarize them in their entirety, these are my initial impressions of these courses.

It can be a little difficult to wrap my head around these concepts, and I am continually learning that the concepts that I thought I understood during lectures are actually a complete mystery to me outside of lecture.  My plan of action: review until I hammer the concepts down.