At the time, Nixon was normalizing relations with China. I figured that if he could normalize relations, then so could I. – E.F. Codd, Interview with DBMS Magazine, 1993
  1. Read Chapter 14 (focus primarily on Sections 14.1-2, 14.3.1-3, 14.5-6) — It’s ok to submit rather fuzzy or even empty answers on the material specifically marked for Wednesday’s discussion.

    1. Explain the four informal guidelines discussed in Section 14.1.

    2. Explain the terms functional dependency (for Monday, see Section 14.2) and multi-valued dependency (for Wednesday, see Section 14.6) by giving an example of each and showing how it satisfies the term’s formal definition.

    3. Review the formal definitions of these terms: superkey; key (see Section 14.3.3).

    4. Explain BCNF (for Monday, see Section 14.5) and 4NF (for Wednesday, see Section 14.6) by giving an example relation and proving whether its schema conforms (or fails to conform) to the definitions of each normal form.

    5. Explain when one would one want to normalize a relational schema and when one might want to de-normalize one.

  2. Review Section 15.1.1 well enough to be able to define Armstrong’s axioms (IR1–3) and closures.