Computer Science Midterm

bit

a zero or one in binary (binary digit)

byte

eight bits

binary number

a base 2 number with two possible different digits

overflow error

error that is created when trying to represent a number that is too large

round off error

error from attempting to represent a number that is too precise, so the value is rounded

Abstraction

a simplified representation of something more complex

analog data

data with values that change continuously/smoothly overtime (ex. music, colors of a painting, position of a sprinter during a race)

digital data

data that changes discretely through a finite set of possinle values

sampling

a process of creating digital representation of analop data by measuring the analog at regualr intervals (aka samples)

lossless compression

reducing the number of bits needed to represent something without losing any information

lossy compression

reducing the number of bits needed to represent something, but information is lost or thrown away

intellectual property

create materials on the computer, you own them

Creative Commons

a license that allows you to freely use materials created by others

user interface

the inputs and outputs that allow a user to interact with a piece of software

input

data that is sent to the computer for processing

output

data that is sent from the program to a device

program statement

a command/instruction (code statement)

program

a collection of program statements

sequential programming

program statements run in order, from top to bottom with no user interaction

event driven programming

some program statements run when triggered by user interaction

documentation

a written description about how the piece of code works/how it was developed

comment

a form of program documentation written into the program to be read by people (doesn’t affect how program runs)

pair programming

collaborative programming style where two programmers switch between teh roles of writing teh code and tracking/planning the progress

debugging

the process of finding and fixing problems in the code

expression

a compination of operations and values that evaluates to a single value

variable

a reference to a value (or value that results from evaluating an expression) that can be used respeatedly throughout a program

assignment operator

allows a program to change the value represented by a variable (=)

global variables

permanent, can be used anywhere in your code

local

temporary, can only be used in the part of the code where it was created (inside onEvent)

boolean value

data that is typed in that is either true or false

comparison operators

>, <, <=, >=, ==, ≠ indicate a boolean expression

logical operators

&&, || (OR) !! (NOT)

boolean expression

evaluates to either true or false

MOD operator

divides two numbers and returns the remainder (long division!!)

conditional statement

if/else statement requires you to define an expression that evaluates to true or false

syntax error

code doesn’t follow the rules of the programming language

logic error

your code follows the rules of the programming language, but doesn’t do what you intend

function

a named group of programming instructions

function call

a command that executes the code within a function

metadata

data about data

bar chart

count how many times each value in the column appears and make a bar at that height

histogram

all number are grouped into “buckets” but otherwise similar to bar charts

crosstab chart

counts how many times combinations of values appears

scatterplot

shows compbinations of values from two columns

open data

sharing data with others so they can analyze it

citizen science

research where some of the data collection is done by members of the public using own computing devices which leads to solving scientific problems

crowdsourcing

practing of obtaining input or information from a large number of people via the internet (new models of collaboration)

big data

the size of the datasets impact how much information can be extracted (collect huge amounts of data so we can learn even more from it)

machine learning

AI

racism

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one is minority or marginalized

list

an ordered collection of elements

element

an individual value in a list that is assigned a unique index

index

a common method for referencing the elements in a list or string using numbers

while loop

uses a boolean condition to repeadeatdly run a block of code (runs until the boolean expression becomes false)

for loop

condenses the parts of the while loop into a shorter statement (similar to the while loop, once the boolean expression becomes false, the loop ends)

iteration

a repetive portion of an algorithm which repeats a specified number of times or until a given condition is met

infinite loop

occurs when the ending condition will never evaluate to true (boolean expression never equal false)

traversal

traversing through a list one element at a time (uses for loop)

filter

create a subset of elements from the original list

reduce

reduce the list down to a single element

argument

the value passed to the parameter

parameter

a variable in a function definition

return

used to return the flow of ocntrol to the point where function was called and to return the value/expression

library

a collection of functions that can be used in many different programs

application program interface (API)

specifications for how the functions in a library behave and how it can be used

procedural abstraction

provides a name for a process that allows the function to be used only knowing what it does, but not how it does it

modularity

the subdivision of a computer program into seperate subprograms