Oh gosh, it's Week 3

     This week has been a rather interesting week in terms of CSC165 and logic.

     Once again, I must reiterate that I'm not very good with logic, but that I am getting much better.  For example, I'm really starting to get the hang of negating things.  This week's lesson on negating from the outside in was great, actually--I always did it piece by piece instead of negating the whole thing and simplifying it, if that makes sense.  While I can negate English without using "not" and such, symbols are very different for me.

     Truth tables are also pretty interesting.  While the concept is simple, it can be very useful in determining results and satisfiability.  (By the way, for "It's a boy and it's not a boy," that statement can be true, as gender is fluid.  Yay!)  Indeed, adding the many laws/properties of math in logical statements makes things a bit harder.  I understand we mustn't simply memorize, but rather, know how to apply them, but it does take time.  Continuing on, however, I am slowly learning how to apply and correctly state mathematical statements with quantifiers.

     As I am taking MAT137 at the same time, the two classes really compliment each other and it's been very useful to have this type of logic pounded into my head.  With only one of the classes, I highly doubt I would truly understand much; researching online and doing practice problems is helping a lot, too.  The tutorial session has also been pretty great, as it's helped me actually understand what we are doing.  At times, I feel frustrated that I can't keep up, but the tutorials help so much.  Being able to ask questions and hear what's going on explained in great detail helps me learn.

     I believe that's it for this week--if there's anything I can improve on in these SLOGs, please tell me.  Thank you!

Best wishes,
Dominique

Starting Out: Weeks 1-2

     I guess I've never been amazing at beginning things, but I'll give it a try.

     CSC165 is quite an interesting class thus far.  Admittedly, though I want to be a Computer Scientist, I'm not the best with logic.  Ergo, time spent in class and looking over notes is a bit frustrating.

     I'll start with the fact that I've never really had experience with the symbols and the small differences in sentence structure.  I come from America, where we have no experience with such things, yet I understand most of my friends have at least seen these symbols and definitions before.  For example, it took me a while to understand how vacuous truths worked.  After all, if we look at A => B, and A is false, shouldn't the statement be false?  No, as when A is false, nothing can be concluded.  Regardless of whether B is true or false, the statement must be true, or rather, vacuously true.

     So yes, it's confusing at first.  In class, I'm often left staring at the slides utterly frustrated.  However, the first tutorial cleared up so much for me, and I honestly understand so much more now.  I've also been researching the topics online and doing some practice problems to get used to the logic behind the problems.  I've been looking up statements and drawing up venn diagrams as well as writing them down using the symbols we've learned and read about in the course notes.

     Quantification may not be my strongest point, but I am learning.  I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to keep up, but I really am improving.  I'm able to differentiate between a sentence and a statement now--the former being open and unspecified, the latter being quantified and can be evaluated--and read the symbols with a bit more ease.  Hopefully I'm able to keep this up throughout the year.

     For now, though, I hope this SLOG is satisfactory--if there's anything I can improve on or if there's anything I should talk about, please tell me!  I'm open to any suggestions.  Thanks!

Best Wishes!
Dominique