29 September 2006

Computational complexity of peeling a banana with special tools

I kept wondering all this while - What is happening to all the theoretical computer science knowledge I have? How do I really mix mathematics and CS together? But it seems that the tough times are coming... Tough time in the sense, challeging time ie the interesting time :)

Had the weekly discussion with prof. He was asking me to prepare on one or two things per week and giving me a well defined line through which I had to proceed. But today it slowly started changing. He was giving me some ideas about some algos for this mathematical computations.

Okay okay, I shall explain. Say, we have a matrix. We have to find out the determinant. How do we do it? We need an algorithm. Right? So, matrix is a mathematical object, it's determinant also is a mathematical object, the calculation of determinant is a mathematical process. But we might have different ways to calculate it. So using complexity analysis, we say which method is better/best. We have to consider both time complexity and space complexity. This was an example.

Today he was telling me about some computational-geometry/algebra algorithms which are doubly exponential in time and exponential in space. (doubley exponential is 2^2^n - 2 to the power of 2 to the power of n; exponential is just 2^n). Also asked me to get ready for these kind of stuff and do a deep dive. Things are coming the way I was expecting - I learn mathematics and with the basics more or less set, I can look into computational issues of some special tools used in mathematics (eg. Groebner Bases).

I am heading to the library to take the book by Papadimitriou - Computational Complexity. Need to refresh my complexity theory!!

- Boiled Banana - Exercise for malayalees -

Take the kerala style big banana (Nenthrappazham); cut the head and tail so that it looks like a sausage; boil it (Puzhunguka). Make sure that it is not overcooked.

Now you have the whole banana, cooked and the skin is a little thin after boiling it.

Take a knife and fork. Try to put the banana from the cooked vessel to your plate. Once that's done successfully, peel the banana - NO, not with your hand. Use the knife and fork. The experience you will have is what you call real fun.

I was having weiss-wurst (Typical Bavarian White-Wurst) with my colleagues and professor. There is a small covering on this wurst [Just like a condom on it ;) ]. Before eating, the cover needs to be taken out - yes, only knife and fork. I was scared that my wurst will fly to some other plate while I was taking of that thin dress of the wurst. By the time I went to the second wurst, I used my hand. What the heck? God has given us hands to undress the wurst!

Tomorrow I'll make one more trip to Oktoberfest. I've to wait a whole year for that to come again. I am sad that I dont drink beer - I dont like the taste. :(

Signing off, Sands.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your blog is hilariously complex...
Not from me. From Bernhard.

God has given us hands to undress the wurst!
Nice ...you really use words in the strangest way :)
Ammu
PS: Is there any color left out in your blog???

Sands | കരിങ്കല്ല് said...

Yup a little complex. This entry, the title itself proclaims abt complexity.

Strange things are to be expressed in strange ways to strangers. What is strange in that? :)

Color opinion taken into consideration.

Sands

The Lonely Backpacker said...

u mean the wurst is boiled pazhams ??? man does it taste good ???...

Sands | കരിങ്കല്ല് said...

Sausage is something similar to banana in shape. (you can say it’s very similar to a penis). Both ends are alike. It is mainly made of some meat and herbs – made into a paste and put into that shape. Normally non-veg. you get veg-sausage too. In German it is called wurst.

And it’s tasty too…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei%C3%9Fwurst is the thing I talked about – in the blog.

The Lonely Backpacker said...

As ammu pointed out, i dont like the colors in ur blog...
y dont u keep two colors alone and blog with it...

The Lonely Backpacker said...

far better..but looks dull..... what happened to the links from ur blog... generally i used to visit dinil and pramode sir's from ur blog... atleast give their links in the blog.....

Anonymous said...

liked the new template :)

da, read this one
http://atulchitnis.net/