The Nature of Abstraction (OCR AS Computer Science): Revision Note

The Nature & Need of Abstraction

What is the nature and need for abstraction?

• Abstraction is the process of removing unnecessary details of a problem to focus on the important features to implement in a solution

• Examples of abstraction include modelling a real life object, environment, action, sequence of actions or concept. Implementations of these include:

  • a simulator such as a car or flight simulator,

  • a representation of a building or house in a program or game or,

  • a map of a bus or train route in a city

• When creating a program, developers must identify important features that will contribute to solving the problem or have a role to play in the solution

• A specific example of abstraction would be the London underground train route map; travellers do not need to know the geographical layout of the routes, only that getting on at stop A will eventually transport you to stop B

London Underground train route map 
Source: Wikipedia (opens in a new tab)

The geographical London underground train map
Source: Wikimedia (opens in a new tab)

• Another example of abstraction would be implementing the trajectory of a projectile, such as a ball or dart, or the physics of a snooker ball on a snooker table

  • Is gravity or air resistance taken into account, if applicable? Is friction?

• The closer the implementation is to reality, the less abstract the solution becomes

  • Pong is an example of a highly abstracted game of tennis or badminton

  • The momentum of the ball is constant and there are no extraneous factors that affect the game such as friction or gravity