Algorithms and Problem Solving

Well, after this week, I have learned that every time I do something on the internet, I basically make data that can be used by anyone if accessed. All this has done is scare me into near paranoia because at any moment, someone can try to use my information against me. That is seriously sick and rude. But then again, this is the internet, and no one gives a rats butt on the internet. It is also sort of getting hard to remember to do my data journal, I am trying to fill in the days but it is getting harder because of the more work that keeps piling on. Besides, I have a daily routine and I go to the same websites everyday anyway. Anyways, the only thing that matters is that be careful on the internet and do not trust search sites because they can use your information against you. That is a pessimistic lesson, isn't' it?

My privacy aside, we also did a problem solving activity. In all truth, the only one that I really understood how to do was the first activity. There was 20 people including you, so that means you can only shake 19 people's hands. The second one was a little more difficult but I could do it. There are two fence posts for every one yard. So if there are 12 yards of fencing, there is going to be 13 fence posts. I am just basing that on logic, but when you involve math into it and turn it into algorithms, my head starts to hurt. Probably because I just got out of Statistics and that class always seems to make my head hurt. Then the third problem was another toughie, and I also did not make an algorithm for this one. Instead I used logic and concluded that since there are 10 people including myself, and if everyone can only shake one time with one person but we need to shake hands with everyone in the room. At first my mind pointed to 9 handshakes, but then what about everyone else? So after I shake hands with that one person, I will shake hands with someone else, then another one, and so on until everyone has shaken hands. So I thought that I will shake hands with 9 people, that person will shake hands with 8 people after he has shaken hands with me. So the equation I thought of was 9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1+0=45 handshakes. Then the part with 20 people was the same thing. 19+18+17+16+15+14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+2+1+0=190 handshakes. However, I did not get the problem on the board at all, mainly because I could not see it. So I relied on my group who did get the answer, or what we thought they answer was. After Mr. Stephens told us the algorithm was 2^n, I felt stupid. But that is life, and I guess I might as well learn about this. May be useful in the future, and since I lack common sense sometimes, I especially need this.