Welcome to Project Euler Walkthrough! This site is dedicated to being a guide to solving the many challenges presented in Project Euler. Before I actually get started working on the problems, I'll provide a brief introduction explaining the purpose of this site, what my goal's are, and a little bit about myself.
I recently discovered the website of Project Euler. This popular website consists of "a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems." I'm very interested in learning and problem-solving, so I joined this website and am currently working to solve as many of these problems as I can.
So why this blog? A couple reasons... First, it is my opinion that recording my learning as I go helps me process information and remember what I learned. Also, if at any time in the future I am interested, I can simply look back at this blog rather than trusting my memory. So is this blog just for me? Well, yes and no. I certainly won't be disappointed if I am the only one that ever reads this blog, but I wanted to make it available to the public for many reasons. I realize that I am not the only one attempting these problems (there are many, many thousands of attempts), so I'd like to also provide a resource for others facing the same challenges. However, that does not mean that I will simply post the solutions to each of the problems. I want this blog to reflect the learning process that I go through as I attempt to solve the challenges. Other websites freely publish solutions to most of the problems, but I want to actually learn the concepts, not just look up the solutions.
Eventually, I'd like to solve these problems using as many different programming languages as possible. I'm going to begin by using Java, but I'd like to also solve these problems in Python, C/C++, and any other language I am learning. Maybe someday I'll turn this information into a website, or maybe I'll only be able to solve 2 of the problems, who knows. This blog simply gives me a place to write about my journey.
So who am I? My name is Michael Patterson and I am currently a student at Iowa State University studying Computer Engineering. I don't have any type of background in Mathematics, but I have taken a number of courses including Calculus I, II, II and Differential Equations. I've also learned to program in a number of languages. I'm not particularly well suited to tackle Project Euler, but I'm always up for a challenge, so I'll see how it goes.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
