There is a perceived barrier to mathematics: proofs. In this course we will try to convince you that this barrier is more frightening than prohibitive: most proofs are easy to understand if explained correctly, and often they are even fun. We provide an accompanied excursion in the “proof zoo” showing you examples of techniques of different kind applied to different topics.
We use some puzzles as examples, not because they are “practical”, but because discussing them we learn important reasoning and problem solving techniques that are useful. We hope you enjoy playing with the puzzles and inventing/understandings the proofs.
As prerequisites we assume only basic math (e.g., we expect you to know what is a square or how to add fractions), basic programming in python (functions, loops, recursion), common sense and curiosity. Our intended audience are all people that work or plan to work in IT, starting from motivated high school students.
De la lección
Invariants
"There are things that never change". Apart from being just a philosophical statement, this phrase turns out to be an important idea that can actually help. In this module we will see how it can help in problem solving. Things that do not change are called invariants in mathematics. They form an important tool of proving with numerous applications, including estimating running time of programs and algorithms. We will get some intuition of what they are, see how they can look like, and get some practice in using them.