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Re^5: [OT] The statistics of hashing. (dissection)by BrowserUk (Patriarch) |
on Apr 03, 2012 at 15:59 UTC ( [id://963272]=note: print w/replies, xml ) | Need Help?? |
Perhaps this will help some. I seriously hope this will not offend you, but suspect it will. Simply put, your post does not help me at all. I am a programmer, not a mathematician, but given a formula, in a form I can understand(*), I am perfectly capable of implementing that formula in code. And perfectly capable of coding a few loops and print statements in order to investigate its properties. What I have a problem with -- as evidently you do too -- is deriving those formula. Like you (according to your own words above; there is nothing accusatory here), my knowledge of calculus is confined to the coursework I did at college some {mumble mumble} decades ago. Whilst I retain an understanding of the principles of integeration; and recall some of its uses, the details are shrouded in a cloud of disuse. Use it or lose it, is a very current, and very applicable aphorism. The direction my career has taken me means that I've had no more than a couple of occasions when calculus would have been useful. And on both those occasions, I succeeded in finding "a man that can", who could provide me with an understandable formula, and thus, I achieved my goal without having to relive the history of mathematics. (*) A big part of the problem is that mathematicians not only have a nomenclature -- which is necessary -- the also have 'historical conventions' -- which are not; and the latter are the absolute bane of the lay-person's life in trying to understand the mathematician's output. There you are, happily following along when reach a text that goes something like this: We may think intuatively of the Riemann sum: Ʃba f(x) dx Where did H come from? Where did a disappear to? Is H (by convention) == to b - a? For the answer to this and other questions, tune in With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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