1. Find out what 2.001⁵, 8.6^2/3, e^-0.15, and 1/1200 are approximately without using a calculator.

We use a really simple method that works well for polynomials and describe how we can determine how well our approximation does relative to the actual answer.

Chapter 11. The project team problem part 1

Let’s pretend for a moment that you’re working as an undergraduate research assistant for one of the most brilliant professors at your school, which makes you more or less a glorified secretary/coffee dispenser. On the first day of class, you are tasked to divide up his CS101 class into pairs of student who will be working together in order to implement an awesome Pokemon clone. Great, yet another boring and unamusing problem to solve. However, soon you find that the problem wasn’t as easy as you originally thought it to be.

The first part of this problem solving series will deal with problems that may not seem intuitive at first, but will have extremely simple and elegant algorithms.

Binary representation of numbers and floating point precision arithmetic.

Once upon a time, I absolutely despised matlab. In my own spoiled preconceptions, I believed that matlab was designed without a single shred of care as to how ugly it is. Of course, I eventually had to finally write my first line of matlab and, upon discovering that I’m still in one piece, concluded that matlab wasn’t really that bad. Anyways, I’ve moved onto grander things now, things such as singing obnoxiously in public, browsing reddit for hours on end, and Python.