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Questions tagged [intuition]

Questions that ask for help building intuition for formal or complex concepts.

33 votes
7 answers
8k views

I understand the proof of the undecidability of the halting problem (given for example in Papadimitriou's textbook), based on diagonalization. While the proof is convincing (I understand each step of ...
user118967's user avatar
64 votes
8 answers
5k views

I believe I have a reasonable grasp of complexities like $\mathcal{O}(1)$, $\Theta(n)$ and $\Theta(n^2)$. In terms of a list, $\mathcal{O}(1)$ is a constant lookup, so it's just getting the head of ...
Khanzor's user avatar
  • 1,481
44 votes
2 answers
16k views

I'm having trouble intuitively understanding why PSPACE is generally believed to be different from EXPTIME. If PSPACE is the set of problems solvable in space polynomial in the input size $f(n)$, ...
user25876's user avatar
  • 443
28 votes
2 answers
11k views

This question was inspired by a comment on StackOverflow. Apart from knowing NP-complete problems of the Garey Johnson book, and many others; is there a rule of thumb to know if a problem looks like ...
Vitaly Olegovitch's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
565 views

Below, assume we're working with an infinite-tape Turing machine. When explaining the notion of time complexity to someone, and why it is measured relative to the input size of an instance, I ...
user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
2k views

I have read many documents about convolution in image processing, and most of them say about its formula, some additional parameters. No one explains the intuition and real meaning behind doing ...
hqt's user avatar
  • 223
9 votes
5 answers
34k views

If you have a language L, without doing any proofs, is there a way to tell if it's recognizable or co-recognizable or decidable? Basically any hints or tricks that can be used to tell. Or maybe the ...
omega's user avatar
  • 553
9 votes
4 answers
4k views

I am not sure I see it. From what I understand, edges and vertices are complements for each other and it is quite surprising that this difference exists. Is there a good / quick / easy way to see ...
Lazer's user avatar
  • 1,117
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

I currently studying machine learning and pattern recognition area. Today, my professor said implementing an unsupervised system that automatically labels data is difficult. Why is that? I think if I ...
eChung00's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote
5 answers
791 views

I was just wondering on a more technical side, if anyone could explain what Google does to create these amazing images from it's deep dream system. Could anyone explain to me in a step by step way, ...
George's user avatar
  • 67
1 vote
2 answers
4k views

I'm so bad at solving the problem of the type: "If $A$ is an NP-complete problem, $B$ is reducible to $A$, then $B$ is..." That I have to come here and ask these silly questions each and every time ...
Olórin's user avatar
  • 859