https://plus.maths.org/content/what-does...er-science
EXCERPT: I turn on my laptop. I open the file for this article. I start typing: the letters appearing with each keystroke, building to words, sentences and paragraphs. I save the file. I scroll back to reread. I move the cursor to edit the text: deleting some, moving some, typing more. I save the file, I scroll back to reread, I edit some more, until I feel this article is done, at which point I'll upload it to our website.
That's my view of the events taking place on my computer as I write this article. I'm aware that behind each of these events complex operations are occurring: in the text-editing software, the computer's operating system, the machine code that translates between software and hardware. And underlying it all, this text ultimately exists as strings of 0s and 1s, manipulated and stored as strings of binary digits, physically encoded into the computer's circuitry.
Computers are an interface between theory and physical reality; they operate both on a theoretical level of programming languages and data, and on the nuts-and-bolts level of the computer's hardware. They are a pinnacle of discoveries in physics and engineering, but also in the mathematics and logic of computer science. Where does the realm of one end and the other begin...
MORE: https://plus.maths.org/content/what-does...er-science
EXCERPT: I turn on my laptop. I open the file for this article. I start typing: the letters appearing with each keystroke, building to words, sentences and paragraphs. I save the file. I scroll back to reread. I move the cursor to edit the text: deleting some, moving some, typing more. I save the file, I scroll back to reread, I edit some more, until I feel this article is done, at which point I'll upload it to our website.
That's my view of the events taking place on my computer as I write this article. I'm aware that behind each of these events complex operations are occurring: in the text-editing software, the computer's operating system, the machine code that translates between software and hardware. And underlying it all, this text ultimately exists as strings of 0s and 1s, manipulated and stored as strings of binary digits, physically encoded into the computer's circuitry.
Computers are an interface between theory and physical reality; they operate both on a theoretical level of programming languages and data, and on the nuts-and-bolts level of the computer's hardware. They are a pinnacle of discoveries in physics and engineering, but also in the mathematics and logic of computer science. Where does the realm of one end and the other begin...
MORE: https://plus.maths.org/content/what-does...er-science