Just wondered if anyone out there knows anything about formal methods or a decent forum I can go and post on.

I've got an exam coming up and I have been going through past papers when I came across this question.

Suggest TWO ways in which the question, "What is the variation of the following numbers" is ambiguous:

2, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15

Any help would be appreciated as I can't find anything to help me in my books or notes and knowing my luck the same type of question will come up.

Thanks
Sarah

Jeez.. This is evil stuff - formal methods. I do recall this from year ago but its lurking at the back of my brain.

Still, I'll give it a go,

One of the purposes of formal methods is to eliminate ambiguity in software specification.

I seem to remember a standard formal approach involving proving that the statement is ambiguous.

I think the question needs to be converted to Z or similar notation and then there is a method that allows you to check for ambiguity e.g. negating the statement or something like that.....can't remember.

Try a web search around the terms

examples ambiguous formal Z proving

There are some papers on this and there may even be a similar exmaple of the question.

I couldn't spend much more time on this because it brings back horrible memories but good luck and sorry I can't help any more.

Thanks Mr Chunder

I did a search on the web and did find some interesting stuff to help me out.

Hopefully it will be enough to get me through.