fundamentals of computational thinking

Question 1

define abstraction

Answer 1

the process of filtering out the irrelevant information to solve a problem

Question 2

define information hiding

Answer 2

all details that do not contribute to the essential characteristics of the problem are omitted

• simulation problems
• London Underground map

Question 3

What are the four types of abstraction?

Answer 3

• procedural abstraction
• Functional abstraction
• problem abstraction
• data abstraction

Question 4

What does problem abstraction consist of?

Answer 4

• involves removing details until the problem reduces to one which has already been solved

Question 5

what does procedural abstraction consist of?

Answer 5

• used to keep the actual values used in computation separate from the overall design.
  
  • this involves writing procedures and passing parameters

Question 6

What does functional abstraction consist of?

Answer 6

• when you call a function to calculate something or to complete a certain tasks to solve the problem
  
  • it does not require any knowledge about the computation involved

Question 7

What does data abstraction consist of?

Answer 7

• the data that is relevant to solving a problem may be in the form of an abstract data structure such as an array

Question 8

define automation

Answer 8

refers to building models of a real world objects or phenomena in order to solve a particular problem

Question 9

how does the process of automation occur?

Answer 9

• decide what details are relevant and discard everything else
• algorithms can then be designed to solve the problem
• the algorithm is then implemented with program code and written

Question 10

define procedural decomposition

Answer 10

it is when you break a problem into smaller sub-problems, so that each sub-problem accomplishes an identifiable task

Question 11

define composition

Answer 11

combining data objects to form compound data objects such as a tree or stack

Question 12

benefit of abstraction in high level languages

Answer 12

the algorithms used to solve a problem are far removed from the actual machine code instructions which are being carried out

Question 13

what is a finite state machine

Answer 13

an abstract representation of how something changes from one state to another in response to a condition or event

Question 14

What are properties of a FSM?

Answer 14

• the machine can only be in one state at a single time
• it can change from one state to another in response to an event or condition, this is known as a transition
• The FSM is defined by a list of its states and the conditions for each transition

Question 15

Applications of FSM’s

Answer 15

• Robotics
• video games
• design of digital hardware systems
• design of compilers and network protocol