Hey everyone,

I need another elective course, and Comp Sci 1FC3 MATHEMATICS FOR COMPUTING sounds really interesting, even though i've never taking a computer sci course before.


I just want to know if there's alot of reading and memorizing in the course.
I can handle all the math for sure, but i'm worried that it might be like physics,where you also need to read and memorize.

I'm taking this next term too, I wish there was a review on it but there isn't one yet

Took this last year. Got an 8. Hard earned 8.

If you're worried about memorization...well, there's a lot of memorization! There are quite a few axioms you need to know (~100?) which will come naturally as you do the homework.

Have fun.

If you're reading math and thinking numbers, you're going to be unpleasantly surprised. You might discuss the naturals a bit, but this course is discrete math, which is quite different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_mathematics

If you're wondering what's covered specifically, it varies from year to year, from what I can tell. I would expect propositional and predicate logics, set theory, and relations at the least.

Personally, I'd suggest against taking this course as an elective. It will be hard, and you will likely hate it.

That said, this course is what computer science is really all about. It's very likely that it will be your first look into the theory behind computer science; it was for me. A lot of people hate the course, and it is tough, but it's necessary; the majority of upper year courses are concentrated on theory like this, rather than programming.

I've not taken it, but this course looks pretty interesting. When you say you're not worried about the math, you should keep in mind, as MarkA said, that you won't be doing 'math' in the same manner as you've done it in high-school & first-year.

You'll probably cover Boolean algebra and predicate logic, and learn a host of techniques of proof along the way (the most interesting of these, to me at least, being reductio ad absurdum). You'll cover some elementary set theory - ideas of finite unions, intersections, of the power set, etc., and apparently some introductory graph theory as well.

You probably won't have to memorise much - I mean, yeah, there's axioms, but there'll probably just be 2 or 3 that are really important and pertinent, while the rest will just be there so picky mathematicians / computer scientists don't poke holes in the prof's notes / textbook.

I'm unsure as to how they present the axiom / rule-of-inference idea in this course, but don't think of axioms as just a long list of "unnatural" properties! If you understand the basic ideas of what you're trying to prove, you should see the need for particular axioms and maybe even prove some theorems yourself. Then, of course, you won't need to regurgitate "there exists an empty set" over-and-over on the test.

I've taken this course (2 years ago), and there are actually a lot of axioms to memorize. There is a lot of reading. There are a lot of proofs to do as well. At the start it is easy, like set theory and learning implications and truth tables but after that it gets really hard. Defiantly not a course to take if you want an easy elective.

advice: Don't take the course

Took this course last year with Kahl. It is a tough course and I wouldn't recommend taking it if you have a heavy course load 2nd term especially if you don't plan on taking 2nd year comp sci courses. On a plus side he bell curves the marks at the end quite a bit and the marking is fair. Like everyone else said this is not math you have seen in highschool or calculus class. Lots of memorizing!

Originally Posted by Rob Mac

I've taken this course (2 years ago), and there are actually a lot of axioms to memorize. There is a lot of reading. There are a lot of proofs to do as well. At the start it is easy, like set theory and learning implications and truth tables but after that it gets really hard. Defiantly not a course to take if you want an easy elective.

Thanks for the advice.
As a math major, was the material in the course useful or a good preparation for upper year math courses?

Originally Posted by Rob Mac

I've taken this course (2 years ago), and there are actually a lot of axioms to memorize. There is a lot of reading. There are a lot of proofs to do as well. At the start it is easy, like set theory and learning implications and truth tables but after that it gets really hard. Defiantly not a course to take if you want an easy elective.

Thanks for the advice.
As a math major, was the material in the course useful or a good preparation for upper year math courses?

I have taken upper year math courses (more the physics stream of courses rather than the math major courses) but I can say alot of it comes in handy. Just some of the symbols like "there exists" and "for all" as well as learning what the truth tables for all logic operations came in handy.

Originally Posted by luxhydrus

Thanks for the advice.
As a math major, was the material in the course useful or a good preparation for upper year math courses?

yeah, that stuff will come in handy. We jumped right into the logical symbols in 2X03 (quantifiers, predicate logic), it was somewhat assumed. All we really got from the prof on it was "this means 'there exists', and this means 'for every'", so familiarity with the properties of quantifiers will be helpful. In addition, familiarity with operators will be helpful in understanding proofs (implication, iff, etc.)

That said, the basic properties aren't difficult at all. You can easily teach it to yourself.