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Recursion Worksheet

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Hossam Selim
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10 views

Recursion Worksheet

Uploaded by

Hossam Selim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Recursive Functions

Here is a recursive function to find n! (factorial).

def fact(n):
if n == 0:
return 1
else:
return n * fact(n - 1)

To find fact(4), we simply write out each step in the recursive computation:

fact(4)
4 * fact(3)
4 * 3 * fact(2)
4 * 3 * 2 * fact(1)
4 * 3 * 2 * 1 * fact(0)
4*3*2*1*1

Exercise 1

def m(a, b):


if a < b:
return a
else:
return m(a - b, b)

Find m(3, 5).


Find m(7, 5).
Find m(14, 5).
What does m do?

1
Exercise 2

def gcd(a, b):


if b == 0:
return a
else:
return gcd(b, a % b)

Use this definition to find gcd(15, 9).


Now find gcd(13, 8).

Exercise 3

The function power should compute the value of bn, where n is any non-negative
integer. Fill in the blanks below, so that power behaves correctly.

def power(b, n):

if n == __________:

return __________

else:
return __________ * power(__________, __________)

Hint: How does knowing the value of 39 help you find the value of 310?

Exercise 4

def double(n):
if n == 0:
return 1
else:
return double(n - 1) + double(n - 1)

Find double(3).
What does this function do?
Can you modify the definition of double so that it computes the same result with a
single recursive call?

2
Exercise 5

def f(x):
if x == 1:
return 1
else:
if x % 2 == 0:
return f(x / 2)
else:
return f(3 * x + 1)

Find f(3).
Find f(7).
Can you find a positive integer x so that f(x) that results in an infinite loop?

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