Re:Donald Knuth's 20th Annual Christmas Tree Lecture: (3/2)-...
by cowsandmilk on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @06:02AM
(#8722121)
> Something that I think anyone can take away from this lecture is a story of discovering new mathematical relationships. He starts with a function that correlates to a logical problem, changes the inputs in an new (strange) way, then studies the output to form a theory that connects to the original problem.
This type of mathematical exploration seems to be the story of his life. See Quarter-imaginary base for him doing the same thing in high school.
Re:Donald Knuth's 20th Annual Christmas Tree Lecture: (3/2)-...
by jdnier on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @09:35AM
(#8722893)
At one point in the video he suggests (with a laugh) the name imagin-ary to go along with binary, ternary, n-ary, etc.
Re:Donald Knuth's 20th Annual Christmas Tree Lecture: (3/2)-...
by brudgers on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @08:04AM
(#8722449)
I would also keep in mind that Donald Knuth probably spent more than...
...fifty years writing a 1comprehensive 12 chapter book on compilers. The reason: things like this are relevant to its scope
I would also keep in mind that Donald Knuth probably spent more than an hour before understanding the topic.
Something that I think anyone can take away from this lecture is a story of discovering new mathematical relationships. He starts with a function that correlates to a logical problem, changes the inputs in an new (strange) way, then studies the output to form a theory that connects to the original problem.
The key was recognizing old results in a new problem.