Why does a broken clock still tick?
Why does a broken clock still tick?
Imagine a clock that ticks normally for most of the day but suddenly stops ticking for a few seconds at random times. You notice it's still ticking almost everywhere during the day.
The clock ticks normally almost everywhere, except for a few seconds when it doesn't. In math, we say a function is continuous almost everywhere if it behaves normally almost everywhere, except for a tiny, negligible set.
Example
The clock ticks normally 99 out of 100 seconds, but skips 1 second at random times.
Remember this
A function is continuous almost everywhere if it behaves normally almost everywhere, except for a tiny, negligible set.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Convergence of random variables
Ever wonder why flipping a coin repeatedly doesn't always predict the next flip?
Halting problem
Alan Turing proved the halting problem is undecidable
Dynamical system
A fixed point is where dx/dt = 0
Overlapping subproblems
Ever calculated a huge Fibonacci sequence by hand?
most transformer operations are memory-bound, not compute-bound
Why do computers sometimes get tired?
Periodic function
How can we break down repeating patterns into simpler parts?
Swipe through more Machine Learning concepts
Open Pocket Polymath