[Edu-sig] understanding recursion

[kirby urner]

A recent thread on recursion math-thinking-l might be of interest.

Many pro computer scientists like to teach about it in tandem with
Peano Arithmetic (PA) i.e. mathematical induction.

http://mail.geneseo.edu/pipermail/math-thinking-l/2007-January/date.html

Of course if the students are already math phobic...

But the idea here is a CS approach gives you a second chance to get
turned on by what turned you off the first time, i.e. those traditional
[I'd say antiquated] high school math classes wherein computer languages
are strictly forbidden and/or sidelined without comment.

Hope yr feelin' better Dethe.  Having the flu sucks.

Kirby


On 2/9/07, Dethe Elza <delza at livingcode.org> wrote:
>
> Here's my 0.02.  Take with a grain of salt, I've been feverish with
> the flu the last couple of days
>
> When the issue comes up, why not step away from the computers and
> simply draw a stack on the whiteboard?  Show how looping stays at the
> same place in the stack and recursion will eventually overflow the
> stack. They don't have to understand all the details of why (or why
> recursion doesn't have that effect in all languages), but a simple
> picture should give them enough to know why to avoid one over the other.
>
> --Dethe
>
> "The Brazilian government is definitely pro-law. But if law doesn't
> fit reality anymore, law has to be changed. That's not a new thing.
> That's civilisation as usual." --Gilberto Gil, Brazilian Minister of
> Culture
>
>
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