Unit 2.1 - Abstraction
Definition
Examples
Example Questions
Pretty pictures
Official
Simplified
“The process of separating ideas from specific instances of those ideas at work. Computational structures are defined by their meanings, while hiding away the details of how they work. Abstraction tries to factor out details of how they work. Abstraction tries to factor out details from a common pattern so that programmers can work close to the level of human thoughts, leaving out details which matter in practice, but are immaterial to the problem being solved.”
Finding and removing all unneeded data to make development faster, while not affecting the user
London Maps
AirlineGo is a flight simulator, designed for pilots, to learn how to fly commercial aircraft. The simulator allows the pilot to fly virtually over many types of terrain include cities, landing and taking off at international airports
The developers of the simulation software examine real cities. They then use a process of abstraction to design a virtual city and airport.
Explain why developers use abstraction
i. One similarity between the virtual and the real area would be the road layout. By having the same road layout, pilots flying in a more realistic situation
The simulated city and real city with have similarities and differences.
State two similarities between the simulated city and the real city, and explain why these similarities exists
One similarity between the virtual and the real area would be the road layout. By having the same road layout, pilots flying in a more realistic situation
Another similarity between the virtual and real area would be the terrain. By having the same topography as a real airport, pilots can learn about taking off and landing in an area with the kind of terrain that would by present at airports they would fly real planes to.
State two differences between the simulated city and the real city, and explain why these similarities exists
One difference between the virtual and the real area would be the buildings in the city. Outside of the terminal, the layout of the buildings would have no effect on the pilot, meaning that they can save time by excluding them, without any effect on the pilot.
Another difference between the virtual and the real area would be the level of traffic in the city. Traffic in the city would have no effect on the pilot, and as such can be removed, saving the developers time without affecting the pilot.