Название: Conjuring with Computation: A Manual of Magic and Computing for Beginners
Автор: Paul Curzon, Peter W. McOwan
Издательство: World Scientific Publishing
Год: 2023
Страниц: 421
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 23.6 MB

The team behind Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN), brings you Conjuring with Computation: A Manual of Magic and Computing for Beginners. Develop your skills as a magician while also learning the basics of Computer Science by exploring its links to magic. Each chapter explains how to do a simple magic trick, step-by-step, then uses the trick to introduce linked fundamental ideas in Computer Science in a fun way. By reading the book you will learn to do self-working tricks, be able to hold magic shows, create your own versions of tricks, and with creativity even invent your own. We cover: Self-working card tricks Magical jigsaws, boxes and other objects False shuffles and cuts False choices Magic with books and pictures Mentalism, clairvoyance and tricks with ghosts Magic built on technology Find out your friends' superpowers! You will also learn how computation underpins conjuring, answering questions like: What is computation? Why are the skills of a computational thinker, such as decomposition, abstraction and generalisation, so important? Why is data represented in different ways? How is easy-to-use software created? How does maths underpin programming? What are the basics of cyber security and privacy? Why must we all understand how computing technology affects society? The book includes profiles of computer scientists, alongside magicians with links to technology, through history. Master conjuring and thinking computationally.

Computers cannot think for themselves. They just blindly follow instructions. Those instructions must always work when followed. Algorithmic Thinking is the skill of writing such instructions. Computer scientists have a similar idea to self-working tricks called algorithms. An algorithm is just a set of precise instructions that if followed exactly leads to a guaranteed effect. The instructions have to cover all eventualities, just as a trick does. Once you have created an algorithm that works, you don’t have to think about solving the original problem anymore or what to do to achieve that effect. You just blindly follow the algorithm, and the right thing happens. It is just like following the Invisible Palming instructions: the magical effect of apparently invisibly moving a card just happens. If you followed the steps exactly, it will have worked for you even if you had no idea how it worked. In doing the trick by following the instructions, you were acting like a computer following an algorithm. More specifically you were acting as a computational agent. It is something or someone following algorithmic instructions precisely and blindly.

A computer cannot think for itself. It can only blindly follow instructions (the instructions are its program). They were written for it by a programmer. It does computation as a result. Computers are therefore computational agents. Computer programs are essentially algorithms written in a programming language (like Python, Java or Scratch). They are languages of instructions in a form that a computer can follow.




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