Formal Definition of Turing Machines

This lecture revisits the theoretical definition of 'computation' and algorithms, exploring what can be solved and efficiently solved with an algorithm. It introduces Turing machines as abstract mathematical automata with an infinite tape divided into cells storing characters from a finite alphabet. The machines have a read/write head that can modify characters, move left or right, and a set of internal states. The lecture explains the functioning of Turing machines through examples, detailing the transition table and the process of determining if a number is even. It covers the initialization of the tape, head positioning, state updates, and halting conditions. The content of the tape at the end represents the processing result.