2.2.2 - Computational methods

Question 1

tractable vs intractable problems

Answer 1

tractable = any problem that can be solved in polynomial time or better.

intractable = any problem that cannot be solved in polynomial time or better.

Question 2

What is performance modelling?

Answer 2

The process of approximating how well models perform using mathematics.

EG - A company could test a high-end cloud server farm at max capacity putting a lot of stress on their hardware. This is expensive and time-consuming. Instead, mathematical modelling can calculate how the servers would perform under stress.

Question 3

What is pipelining?

Answer 3

Splitting a large task into small chunks and overlapping these smaller processes to speed up the overall process.

Question 4

What is visualisation?

Answer 4

Allows us to create a mental image of what a program will do or how it will work before we start to solve it.

Humans naturally respond well to visual representations.

Question 5

What is heuristics?

Answer 5

Make use of independent experiences to get to a problem that is “good enough”.