abstraction Flashcards
What is abstraction?
Abstraction is the process of filtering out both irrelevant characteristics and unnecessary detail.
What is a model?
A model is a representation of a problem. A computer program is a set of instructions that a computer follows.
Which of the following is a general characteristic?
‘Dogs run quickly’ is a general characteristic. ‘This dog has a wet nose’ refers to a specific dog.
Which of the following is a general characteristic?
Some boats have sails’ is a general characteristic. ‘This boat has an engine’ is specific - it refers to one boat only.
Which of the following is NOT a general characteristic?
This dog has a brown coat’ refers to a specific dog. It is not a characteristic of all dogs.
Which of the following is NOT a general characteristic?
‘This book is fun to read’ is NOT a general characteristic. This refers to one book only, so this is not a general characteristic.
When drawing a dog, which of the following characteristics could be ignored?
Dogs run quickly’ could be ignored. We don’t need to know that dogs run quickly to be able to draw a dog. We do need to know they have paws.
To be able to draw cars, which of the following characteristics is it necessary to know about?
It is necessary to know if cars have wheels to draw them. Who owns and sells cars are general characteristics, but neither are needed to draw a car.
Houses have walls, doors and people live in them. How many of these characteristics do we need to know to draw a house?
We need to know two characteristics - walls and doors. We don’t need to know who lives in a house before we can draw one.
