Week 6: Thanksgiving and the Introduction to MORE Proofs!

Hey guys, as promised this is Kyle checking in to bring you the weekly report on week 6 that I should have gave you last week. Once again I deeply apologize for not being able to deliver last week, things got pretty busy and I just couldn't find the time. So, without further ado, let's get started with this week's roundup.

So during week 6 we went over more methods of proving as well as different kinds of proofs. We started off with learning how to write proofs of non-boolean functions, meaning that the function does not return true or false. Instead, the function might return something like a number. We used the floor of x example to illustrate this concept. Since the floor of x function and proofs using that function is something that will come up often in assignment 2, I need to review the key points of the function in order to be able to accurately write the proofs for the statements in assignment 2. Also, learning to write these codes may help me write the proofs faster and more efficiently. So after going over the floor of x function we moved on to learning how to prove something false, which came as no surprise since we only had learned how to prove statements true before. It turns out that proving a statement false is simply negating the statement, and proving the negation true. I had no problem understanding this concept. The only thing of concern was probably figuring out when I needed to prove a statement false. But, as professor Heap said, you only need to concern yourself with proving statement false when you are 100% sure that it isn't true. How to do that is by trying to prove the original statement. After learning about disproving false statements we then wrapped up the week with learning about proof by cases, proof about limits, and being careful about negating statements. Overall, this week was a relatively easy one to understand, except maybe for proof about limits. which I need to review.

So guys, comment below, how did you find this week 6's material? Were the proofs easy to understand? Let me know. Also, keep a look out for my mathematical workings for the penny piles problem covered in week 7. Hope you guys enjoyed this blog, and as always, words are hard, comp-sci is awesome, and later days.