CSE141 Introduction to Programming (Fall’24)

Homework #1 Due: Sep 25 by 11:55pm

Instrutions:
• Submit num2eng.cpp, random_walker.cpp, and random_walkers.cpp and write your name
and ERP id on the first line in each as comment.

• Late submission: There will be 20% penalty for up to one day late submissions, 50% for two
days late submissions. No submission will be accepted after two days past the due date.

• Plagiarism: Students are expected to perform their work individually unless otherwise specified
by the instructor. Assignments may be discussed in general terms with other students and the
students may receive assistance from the instructor, TA, or classmates. Assistance does not
mean obtaining solutions and modifying them; this is considered plagiarism.

1. [15 marks] Number-to-English. Write a program num2eng.cpp to read input an integer between
−999, 999 and 999, 999 and print the English equivalent. Here is an exhaustive list of words that your
program should use: negative, zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy,
eighty, ninety, hundred, thousand. Don’t use hundred, when you can use thousand, e.g., use one thousand
five hundred instead of fifteen hundred.

2. [15 marks] A drone’s flight. A drone begins flying aimlessly, starting at IBA Student Center. At
each time step, the drone flies one meter in a random direction, either north, east, south, or west, with
probability 25%. How far will the drone be from Student Center after n steps? This process is known
as a two-dimensional random walk 1 .

1
This process is a discrete version of a natural phenomenon known as Brownian motion. It serves as a scientific model for
an astonishing range of physical processes from the dispersion of ink flowing in water, to the formation of polymer chains in
chemistry, to cascades of neurons firing in the brain.

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(a) Write a program random_walker.cpp that takes an integer n as input and simulates the motion of
a random walk for n steps. Print the location at each step (including the starting point), treating
the starting point as the origin (0, 0). Also, print the square of the final Euclidean distance from
the origin.
% random_walker.exe % random_walker.exe
Enter n: 10 Enter n: 20
(0, 0) (0, 0)
(0, -1) (0, 1)
(0, 0) (-1, 1)
(0, 1) (-1, 2)
(0, 2) (0, 2)
(-1, 2) (1, 2)
(-2, 2) (1, 3)
(-2, 1) (0, 3)
(-1, 1) (-1, 3)
(-2, 1) (-2, 3)
(-3, 1) (-3, 3)
squared distance = 10 (-3, 2)
(-4, 2)
(-4, 1)
(-3, 1)
(-3, 0)
(-4, 0)
(-4, -1)
(-3, -1)
(-3, -2)
(-3, -3)
squared distance = 18

(b) Write a program random_walkers.cpp that takes two inputs n and trials. In each of trials
independent experiments, simulate a random walk of n steps and compute the squared distance.
Output the mean squared distance (the average of the trials squared distances).
% random_walkers.exe % random_walkers.exe
Enter n and trials: 100 10000 Enter n and trials: 400 2000
mean squared distance = 101.446 mean squared distance = 383.12

% random_walkers.exe % random_walkers.exe
Enter n and trials: 100 10000 Enter n and trials: 800 5000
mean squared distance = 99.1674 mean squared distance = 811.8264

% random_walkers.exe % random_walkers.exe
Enter n and trials: 200 1000 Enter n and trials: 1600 100000
mean squared distance = 195.75 mean squared distance = 1600.13064

As n increases, we expect the random walk to end up farther and farther away from the origin.
But how much farther? Use random_walkers.cpp to formulate a hypothesis as to how the mean
squared distance grows as a function of n. Use trials = 100000 to get a sufficiently accurate
estimate.

Last updated: 2024-09-18 10:52 Page 2 of 2