Summary of 1. What is Computation?

00:00:00 - 00:40:00

This 1-hour video from MIT covers the basics of computation, including how computers follow instructions to perform calculations, and how to create control flow in a program.

• 00:00:00 This lecture will cover the basics of computer usage, from the definition of computation to Python programming.
• 00:05:00 This video introduces the concept of computation, and discusses the two main types of knowledge that computers use- declarative knowledge, or statements of fact, and imperative knowledge, or the instructions on how to achieve a specific outcome. The video then goes on to discuss how computers use imperative knowledge to perform calculations, and goes on to discuss how imperative knowledge is used to create recipes or a sequence of steps for achieving a specific outcome.
• 00:10:00 This 1-paragraph summary explains the video "1. What is Computation?" In this video, a MIT student demonstrates the difference between declarative and imperative knowledge with an example of how to find the square root of 16. Computers can follow a recipe, but humans need to be aware of the steps involved and make decisions along the way.
• 00:15:00 This 1-hour video covers the history of computation, from early fixed-program computers to modern computers with stored-program capability.
• 00:20:00 Computation is the process of manipulating data using primitive operations and programming languages.
• 00:25:00 In programming, there is only one meaning behind a line of code, but this can be SUBJECT to ERROR. Errors in syntax and semantics can be easily spotted by a programming language, such as Python.
• 00:30:00 In Python, there are two types of objects: scalar objects, which are just basic objects from which everything can be made, and non-scalar objects, which have some internal structure. The print command is used to print things out. Expressions are made up of objects operator object. When expressions are evaluated, the type of the answer depends on the types of the operands.
• 00:35:00 In Python, values are stored in memory and assignments bind values to names. When using a name later in your code, you are referring to the value in memory. When you want to refer to a value later, you just type the name of the variable.
• 00:40:00 The video discusses the concept of computation, discussing how computers perform calculations by following instructions. It also discusses how to create control flow in a program, so that the computer can carry out one task rather than a series of unrelated ones.