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Recursion has always been my favorite example of how learning math helps understand programming. If you've ever proven something by induction, you should have n
by CodeMage 16y ago
Recursion has always been my favorite example of how learning math helps understand programming. If you've ever proven something by induction, you should have no problem understanding recursion.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- edanm 16y agoHonestly, I think most people who "prove" things using induction don't really understand what they're doing. Then again, most people don't really understand recursion either.
- tkahn6 16y agoHonestly, I think most people who "prove" things using induction don't really understand what they're doing Can you explain what you mean by this?
- edanm 16y agoSure. In my experience, most people who go through math classes at a University, not to mention classes in High School, are mostly "blindly" following a template of how to do induction. They don't really understand the principle behind it, why it's a valid proof technique, etc. Put another way, if I used induction incorrectly, I could probably still trick them into thinking it's a valid proof because it looks like induction. The same goes for a lot of things in Mathematics. The same also goes for recursion - most people don't really understand recursion (unless it's used at a "simple" level, like in Tree Recursion).
- lmkg 16y ago> if I used induction incorrectly, I could probably still trick them into thinking it's a valid proof because it looks like induction. You mean like this one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_horses_are_the_same_color http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_horses_are_the_same_color My college calculus professor used this example when she was teaching induction.
- jemfinch 16y agoThat's a perfect demonstration of the difference between epistemic induction (unprovable) and mathematical induction (provable).
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y agoEr, actually it's not. It is mathematical induction, but with a broken case.
- johnaspden 16y agoBeautiful. Thank you.
- ent 16y agoThis sounds more like a case of people not understanding what proving by induction is (and as a consequence, not doing so) rather than them proving by induction and and not understanding what they are doing.