Week 7 – Computation
Lecture (February 28th)
Readings 📖
- Shallit, A Very Brief History of Computer Science
- Wolfram, George Boole: A 200-Year View
- Computer History Museum, The Engines
- YouTube: Log Tables - Numberphile
- Two-Bit History, What Did Ada Lovelace’s Program Actually Do?
- Ko, Critical CS Education History
Optional:
- Newell et. al., What is Computer Science?
- Dijkstra, Why numbering should start at zero
- Copeland, Alan Turing: The codebreaker who saved “millions of lives”
- YouTube: Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2, Part 1: The method of finite differences: if you’d like a refresher on the method of finite differences (especially for Question 1 on the homework)
- Computer Hope, When was the first computer invented?: good to skim if you’d like a comprehensive overview of the development of computers
- Leibniz, Explanation of Binary Arithmetic: translation of Leibniz’ original essay on binary
Homework 7 (due Monday, March 7th at 11:59PM) (solutions) 📝
Submit your answers as a PDF to Gradescope by the due date for full credit. We encourage you to discuss the readings and questions with others in the course, but all work must be your own. Remember to use Campuswire if you need guidance!
The content of Homework 7 can be found in this Jupyter Notebook. You will submit your work as a PDF to Gradescope; the notebook specifies what to include in your PDF.