Week 2: January 14-18, 2019

Coding is the topic of the week. We’ll be programming multiple LEDs to be controlled by potentiometers, photocells, and pushbuttons, as well as discovering the simple and complex logic of computer systems through the Arduino microcontroller.

Analog vs. Digital

In today’s world, perceiving the difference between a natural analog signal and the computer-driven digital signal might seem nearly impossible - and that’s generally a good thing. If you’ve ever wondered why recorded music got worse before it got better, or why even modern video games still can’t perfectly trick our eyes (but they’re close), this short read might guide your understanding.

Digital Age: Understanding Code & Why We Use It

Programming, software development, and coding are terms that are often used interchangeably. Modern programming is almost exclusively done using human-like “high-level” coding languages to generate a set of precise instructions that the computer can follow, known as “machine language.” Machine language is the most basic version of what a computer understands: a series of 1s and 0s that somehow, someway, make sense to the computer.

“1” and “0” represent far more than just numbers - they represent opposites. A state of being one thing or the other:

1	0
On	Off
High	Low
True	False
Input	Output

There’s a lot of power in this simple logic. While a single statement may not mean much, let’s think about how we utilize such a statement to reach every day conclusions based on deductive reasoning or more complex logic.

You’re approaching a stoplight on the highway. The light is turning yellow, but you’re approaching fairly quickly and you want to go straight. What might you consider before reaching a go or stop conclusion?

Am I in a hurry?
Is it safe?
Have I been to this light before?
Is there time to make it?
Is there anyone else arriving at the light?
Are they slowing down?

By framing these questions to arrive at a yes-or-no conclusion, a computer should be able to formulate some answer; it’s likely the questions and answers that came to your mind were much more complex. This is the fundamental logic that separates the human mind from computers. We go through this series of questions to reach an answer at a rate imperceivable to us, and often arrive at answers unique to our experience. But is there a priority to these questions? In what specific order should they be asked? And are there more effective questions that we can use to infer the correct answers in such a complicated situation?

All of this is essentially tied to the job description of individuals who develop computer applications, smart phone tools, webpages, self-driving cars, and much more; for more information on just a few of the careers available in software, read here.

SparkFun Tutorials Continued

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