Computer vs Undecidable - What's the difference?
computer | undecidable |
(now, rare, chiefly, historical) A person employed to perform computations; one who computes.
* 1927 , J. B. S. Haldane, Possible Worlds and Other Essays , page 173
* 2003 , (Bill Bryson), A Short History of Nearly Everything , BCA, page 116:
by restriction, a male computer, where the female computer is called a computress
A programmable electronic device that performs mathematical calculations and logical operations, especially one that can process, store and retrieve large amounts of data very quickly; now especially, a small one for personal or home use employed for manipulating text or graphics, accessing the Internet, or playing games or media.
(mathematics, computing theory) Incapable of being algorithmically decided in finite time. For example, a set of strings is undecidable if it is impossible to program a computer (even one with infinite memory) to determine whether or not specified strings are included.
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(mathematics) (of a WFF'') logically independent from the axioms of a given theory; i.e., that it can ''never'' be either proved or disproved (i.e., have its negation proved) on the basis of the axioms of the given theory. (''Note: this latter definition is independent of any time bounds or computability issues, i.e., more Platonic.)
As a noun computer
is (now|rare|chiefly|historical) a person employed to perform computations; one who computes.As an adjective undecidable is
(mathematics|computing theory) incapable of being algorithmically decided in finite time for example, a set of strings is undecidable if it is impossible to program a computer (even one with infinite memory) to determine whether or not specified strings are included.computer
Noun
(en noun)- Only a few years ago Mr. Powers, an American computer , disproved a hypothesis about prime numbers which had held the field for more than 250 years.
- One Harvard computer , Annie Jump Cannon, used her repetitive acquaintance with the stars to devise a system of stellar classifications so practical that it is still in use today.
Quotations
* (English Citations of "computer")Synonyms
* (programmable device that performs logical operations) automatic data processing machine, processor, 'puter (informal), box (slang), machine, calculator, portable computer, laptop * See alsoHyponyms
* (programmable device that performs logical operations) desktop, laptop * (a person employed to perform computations) computress (f)Antonyms
* (a person employed to perform computations) computress (f) (when "computer" is used to represent the masculine form)Derived terms
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *See also
* chip * data processing * desktop * hardware * laptop * mainframe * microprocessor 1000 English basic words ----undecidable
English
Adjective
(-)- The first-order procedure SP differs from the proposi-
tional procedure CP°1 in an essential feature. Namely, CP°1
always terminates while SP may run forever as we have seen with
the example immediately after (3.7). This is not a specific
defect of SP. Rather it is known that first-order logic is an
undecidable' theory while propositional logic is a '''decidable'''
theory. This means that for the latter there are '''decision pro-
cedures''' which for any formula decide whether it is valid or
not — and CP°1 in fact is such a decision procedure — while
for the former such decision procedures do not exist in princi-
ple. Thus SP, according to these results for which the reader
is referred to any logic texts such as [End], [DrG] or [Lew],
is of the kind which we may expect, it is a '''semi-decision'''
' procedure which confirms if a formula is valid but may run
forever for invalid formulas. Therefore, termination by running
out of time or space after any finite number of steps will
leave the question for the validity of a formula unsettled. [...]
