CS 100: Lecture L1

January 26

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There were 4 handouts:

1. Information Sheet (pink). Must be filled out and returned in lecture by 2/2.
2. The First Day Handout.
3. Guide to Code Warrior
4. Programming assignment P1.

Use the logarithmic spiral program (P1A) to talk about

• design parameters, model parameters and the blur between engineering and science.
• the interplay between theory, experiment, and computation.
• iteration
• the step-by-step nature of programming
• the Java language in general
• variables and  assignment statements.

The Five Computational Senses.

1. Do you have eyes for the geometric.
2. Do you have ears that can hear the combinatoric explosion?
3. Do you have a taste for the random?
4. Do you have a nose for dimension?
5. Do you have a touch for what is finite, inexact, and approximate?

The idea is to build your computational intuition and to do that we work with carefully chosen examples.

Read more about the course goals.

Will assume pre-calculus. This means that you have worked with

• integers, greatest common divisors, prime numbers.
• polynomials, quadratic equations and their roots
• polygons, points, lines, and distance functions
• sines, cosines, and trigonometric identities
• logarithms and the exponential function
• parametric equations like (x(t),y(t)) = (a1 + a2*cos(t) , b1 + b2*sin(t)) for an ellipse

You'll never be tested on these things per se, but you have to be able to use given "formulas" that involve these concepts.

What You Should be Doing

• Study the website to see how the course is run.
• Plan to attend a CodeWarrior Demo if necessary.
• Aim to be CodeWarrior Literate by the end of next week.
• Fill out the pink form and submit in lecture by 2/2.
• Do not go to section this week. The sections begin next week.