We're Halfway There

Last week we got our tests back. To be honest I did not expect to do so well. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I spent a minimal amount of time preparing for it. And I was relieved that this risk somewhat payed off. The one thing that really annoyed me about the test were those despicable delta-epsilons! It was and is a continuing source of grief for me.The negation itself was no problem. But the explanation proved to be quite challenging. On the test, I seriously contemplated leaving it blank and invoking the '20%' rule. However, I went with my gut and wrote down what I thought it meant. Luckily, this move was beneficial if only by the skin of my teeth. I ended up with a mark of 1 for each question, and if my math is accurate, 2.0 > 1.2.

Reading week marks the halfway point in the semester and therefore the halfway point in this course. Looking back on the last six short weeks, CSC165 has so far been an unpredictable course. There has been a variety of material ranging from quantifiers and implications to delta-epsilon and now to proofs. The latter of which will get a fair share of my attention this week. Proving that a statement is true can be quite rigorous and more often than not, it requires a great deal of insight, foresight and a willingness to think way outside the box. Hopefully, this sort of work will open my mind in a new direction. You just never know. And as surprising as this sounds, I'm looking forward to what the next six weeks have to offer.

Testing. Testing.

And that ladies and gentlemen was term test 1. Personally, I wouldn't say that it was a breeze, but it certainly wasn't a storm either. Friday was just one of those days. If you know what I mean. To be honest, I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked studying for this test since I had test in econ shortly after. (And if you're in econ you know how crazy those tests can be) So my preparation for this test included a quick glance through the course notes, quizzes, past tests, and the assignment and leaving the rest to the cheat sheet. It proved to be a blessing and a curse. Thanks to it, I was ready to face the full wrath of any and all quantifiers. However, when it came down to delta epsilon, it seemed no amount of 'cheating' would help. It took me a long time to reason with myself, (and my enemy) and to convince myself that I had the right answer. Maybe I should have left it blank, I don't know. But we'll find out soon enough.

The last couple of weeks were spent in proving various mathematical statements. For example, if n is an odd natural number, prove that it's square is also an odd natural number. The structure of a proof may turn out to be by guardian angel! Admittedly, my mind isn't creative enough to conjure up proofs. I can somewhat reason out why a statement would be true or not, but when it comes time to express what's in my mind, I freeze up. I guess I have the inability to express myself with mathematical reasoning and expression. And maybe that's why this course is going to be invaluable to my overall development.

Anyways, the answer to last weeks riddle was 'Rhombus'. You would use a 'RhOMbus' to go to the R.O.M.  HA-HA, yeah i know.