Skip to Content
Good Math
book

Good Math

by Mark C. Chu-Carroll
July 2013
Intermediate to advanced
282 pages
6h 28m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from Good Math

23Pathology and the Heart of Computing

In computer science–speak, we say that a computing system is “Turing complete” if it can do the same computations as a Turing machine. That’s important because the Turing machine is an example of the maximum capability of any mechanical computer. The capability of a Turing machine can be matched, but never exceeded. If a computing device can do the same computations as a Turing machine, then it can do everything that any computer can do. Understanding that, we’d like to understand what a machine needs to be Turing complete. How hard is it to make machines that can perform any possible computation?

The answer is, surprisingly easy.

Computers can do amazingly complicated things, and because of that, we ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Simply Math

Simply Math

DK
Practical Discrete Mathematics

Practical Discrete Mathematics

Ryan T. White, Archana Tikayat Ray
Linear Algebra, 5th Edition

Linear Algebra, 5th Edition

Stephen H. Friedberg, Arnold J. Insel, Lawrence E. Spence

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781941222546Errata