Week 1 and 2- Simple and Complete Induction

The first week of lectures on simple induction was pretty much a review of CSC 165 for myself. Again, we had to work around the problem and search for solution insights in order to move on with the proof structure. The base case of P(0) was revisited and the induction steps were further explored with different cases. I'm glad to hear that the proof structure is much more relaxed as to CSC 165, where the indentations had to be clear and the lines had to match with one another. Despite of that, the course seems to be much more loaded with 3 assignments and problem sets on top of that. The problem sets is really a revision of what was learned and is more of a modification of problems that were done in class. With them done in advance, I believe it helps in tackling the problems in the assignments. Hopefully the TA's won't be too harsh on the marking scheme for both.

Problem set 2 was quite similar to a problem that was done in CSC 165, with the difference that it now had to be proved by complete induction for the postage stamps. Although part a took me a while to write down quite a few of the possibilities of n>k, it was pretty doable. As for part b, I'm thinking to use contradiction as a solution to the problem. I have yet to flip through the pages of the textbook to refresh my memory of a contradiction proof structure.

Assignment 1 is due in just around 7 days and I've been thinking on all of the problems. Problems 1 and 2 makes a lot of sense to me and it's the proof structure that I'm struggling to write up with. Even if I'm able to come up with a differnet menu for the eight combinations, how do I put it into a proof structure? The TA hours on Mondays and the CSC help centre will defintely be a great aid for me to clear up the questions that I have right now. It's also good to hear that the assignment can be done in pairs and not alone because it really helps to have someone to work with. I'm looking forward to meet Danny again at the office, when there's less people outside the door.