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On the first day of the first course as a CS major, the prof said something like "in this course you'll learn how computers work from the bottom up", turned to
by cscheid 12y ago
On the first day of the first course as a CS major, the prof said something like "in this course you'll learn how computers work from the bottom up", turned to the blackboard, and wrote Maxwell's equations. We laughed, and he said, "You're laughing because I got it wrong, no? You need quantum mechanics for transistors".
We actually ended up starting at logic gates, flip-flops, and latches. But the joke was a great reminder that your floor is someone else's ceiling.
- saurik 12y agoI once taught a class "Software as a Second Language: Computer Programming for Non-Majors" at UCSB/CCS. The audience very rapidly "why?"'d me down to "I honestly don't know, class dismissed: come back next week". I came back with a box of 12V relays and restarted the class from logic gates up, building a toy architecture with a usable machine language. Of course, I started at magnets (as given magnetism I can explain pretty easily how a relay works), but had to tell people that not only would you have to trust me that magnets worked at all, but that it isn't even clear that anyone knows how they work anyway (but for those curious, the Physics students in the class would likely be happy to talk about it ;P).