Getting Started

Self-Review Questions

Self-review 1.1 Why is the following the case?

>>> print 4 + 9
13
>>>
Because the Python system evaluates the expression 4 + 9 which means adding 4
to 9 giving the result 13 which is the printed out.

Self-review 1.2 Why is the following the case – rather than the result being 13?
>>> print "4 + 9"
4+9
>>>
Because "4+9" is a string and so it is printed as is, there is no expression to be
evaluated.

Self-review 1.3 Why does the expression 2 + 3 * 4 result in the value 14 and not
the value 24?
Because the * operator has higher precedence than the operator +. The 3 * 4 subex-
pression is evaluated first giving 12 and then the expression 2 + 12 is evaluated
resulting in 14.

Self-review 1.4 What is a module and why do we have them?

A module is a collection of bits of program that provide a useful service.

Self-review 1.5 What is a library and why do we have them?

The answer “A place where books are held, so that they can be borrowed” is clearly
correct but not the one wanted. The answer wanted is“A collection of bits of
software that we can make use of in our programs.”

Self-review 1.6 What does the statement turtle.demo ( ) mean?

The statement causes the function demo from the Turtle module to be executed.

Self-review 1.7 What is an algorithm?

It is a procedure/process for achieving a desired goal.

Self-review 1.8 Why are algorithms important in programming?

2 Getting Started

Programming is all about implementing algorithms in software so algorithms are

critical and core to programming.

Self-review 1.9 What shape does the following program draw?

turtle.forward ( 100 )
turtle.right ( 90 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )
turtle.right ( 90 )
turtle.forward ( 100 )
turtle.right ( 90 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )

A rectangle 100 unit wide and 50 units deep:

Self-review 1.10 The Turtle module provides a function to draw circles. If this
function was not available, what algorithm would you use to
draw a circle?
Draw a large number of very short straight lines changing the direction of travel
by 360° divided by the number of lines. So if the number is 3 we have a triangle. If
the number is 4 we have a square. If the number is 5 we have a pentagon, with 6 a
hexagon. If we have 100 sides then for a small ‘circle’ it may not be noticeable that
the lines are straight.

Self-review 1.11 What does the function turtle.goto do?

Hint: Use the Python help system to help you!

Help on function goto in turtle:

turtle.goto = goto(*args)
Go to the given point.

If the pen is down, then a line will be drawn. The turtle’s

orientation does not change.

Two input formats are accepted:

goto(x, y)
go to point (x, y)
 Programming Exercises 3

goto((x, y))
go to point (x, y)

Example:
>>> turtle.position()
[0.0, 0.0]
>>> turtle.goto(50, -45)
>>> turtle.position()
[50.0, -45.0]

Self-review 1.12 What is stdin?

Self-review 1.13 What is ‘script mode’?

Programming Exercises

Exercise 1.1 Estimate the size of your computer screen by importing the Turtle
module and causing the turtle to move 1 pixel (though you may want
to try 10 pixels!).
Using the program:
import turtle

turtle.forward ( 1279 )
turtle.right ( 90 )
turtle.forward ( 512 )

raw_input ( ’Press return to terminate the program: ’ )

and the window manager to resize and reposition the drawing window, we saw
that the screen width was 1280. By making the window wider than the screen and
then locating one end of the horizontal line at one side of the screen, we saw that
the down line was right on the other edge of the screen. This trick doesn’t work
so easily for vertical measurement. Hence we drew half what we thought was the
screen height and saw whether it was half the height. It was so we estimate the
height to be 1024.
Exercise 1.2 Experiment with the ‘square spiral’ program, varying the lengths of
various lines. Which values make spirals and which do not? Which
values make the nicest-looking spiral?
Exercise 1.3 Write a program to draw a right-angled triangle looking something
like:
4 Getting Started

import turtle

turtle.forward ( 70 )
turtle.left ( 135 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )
turtle.left ( 90 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )

# Prompt to stop the program from terminating and hence the display from disappearing.

raw_input ( ’Press return to terminate the program: ’ )

Exercise 1.4 Write a program to draw a red circle, then a yellow circle underneath
it and a green circle underneath that. The result should look some-
thing like:

It is true that in this

monochrome
rendition, the colors
just appears in
various shades of
grey, but the colors
will work on your
computer – unless
you have a
monochrome
screen!

Hint: We used the function turtle.goto as well as the functions turtle.up,

turtle.down, turtle.color and turtle.circle in our solution.

import turtle

turtle.up ( )
turtle.goto ( 0 , 35 )
turtle.down ( )
turtle.color ( ’red’ )
turtle.circle ( 20 )
turtle.up ( )
turtle.goto ( 0 , -20 )
turtle.down ( )
turtle.color ( ’yellow’ )
turtle.circle ( 20 )
turtle.up ( )
turtle.goto ( 0 , -75 )
turtle.down ( )
turtle.color ( ’green’ )
turtle.circle ( 20 )

raw_input ( ’Press return to terminate the program: ’ )

Exercise 1.5 Amend your program from the previous question so that the circles
are filled and hence the result looks something like:
 Programming Exercises 5

These circles are

definitely filled with
the right color when
we run the program
on our computers
even though they
just look greyish in
this book.

Hint: We used the function turtle.fill in our solution.

import turtle

turtle.up ( )
turtle.goto ( 0 , 35 )
turtle.down ( )
turtle.color ( ’red’ )
turtle.fill ( 1 )
turtle.circle ( 20 )
turtle.fill ( 0 )
turtle.up ( )
turtle.goto ( 0 , -20 )
turtle.down ( )
turtle.color ( ’yellow’ )
turtle.fill ( 1 )
turtle.circle ( 20 )
turtle.fill ( 0 )
turtle.up ( )
turtle.goto ( 0 , -75 )
turtle.down ( )
turtle.color ( ’green’ )
turtle.fill ( 1 )
turtle.circle ( 20 )
turtle.fill ( 0 )

raw_input ( ’Press return to terminate the program: ’ )

Exercise 1.6 Write a program to draw a regular hexagon. The result should look
something like:

Hint: Regular hexagons have six sides, of equal length, which meet at
an internal angle of 120°.
6 Getting Started

import turtle

turtle.forward ( 50 )
turtle.right ( 60 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )
turtle.right ( 60 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )
turtle.right ( 60 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )
turtle.right ( 60 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )
turtle.right ( 60 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )

raw_input ( ’Press return to terminate the program: ’ )

Exercise 1.7 Write a program to draw the first letter of your name.

Challenges

Challenge 1.1 Write a program to create a triangular spiral, as in:

Hint: This is easiest if you work with equilateral triangles – it gets

very complex otherwise.

import turtle

turtle.forward ( 10 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 15 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 20 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 25 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 30 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 35 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 40 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 45 )
 Challenges 7

turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 50 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 55 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 60 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 65 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 70 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 75 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 80 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 85 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 90 )
turtle.left ( 120 )
turtle.forward ( 95 )
turtle.left ( 120 )

raw_input ( ’Press return to terminate the program: ’ )

Challenge 1.2 Write a program to draw this ‘envelope’ figure:

Hint: You may want to start by doing some trigonometry to sort out
all the angles and lengths. Pythagoras’ Theorem will almost
certainly come in useful: Pythagoras’ Theorem states that for a
right-angled triangle:
p
hypotenuse = x2 + y2

where hypotenuse is the longest side of the triangle and x and

y are the lengths of the other two sides.

Hint: To find the square root of a number in Python, you need to

import the module math and call the function math.sqrt: to find
the square root of 2, you import the math module, then write
math.sqrt(2).

#! /usr/bin/env python

import turtle
import math
8 Getting Started

# Assume the house body is a square and the roof is a right-angled triangle (half a square).
We
# can then get the various diagonals using Pythogoras’ Theorem with all angles being multiples
# of 45.

# It seems almost totally unreasonable not to use variables to solve this problem.

sideLength = 40
halfDiagonalLength = 0.5 * math.sqrt ( 2 * ( sideLength ** 2 ) )

# Create the right orientation.

turtle.left ( 90 )

# Draw the house.

turtle.forward ( sideLength )
turtle.right ( 135 )
turtle.forward ( halfDiagonalLength )
turtle.right ( 90 )
turtle.forward ( halfDiagonalLength )
turtle.left ( 135 )
turtle.forward ( sideLength )
turtle.left ( 135 )
turtle.forward ( halfDiagonalLength )
turtle.right ( 90 )
turtle.forward ( halfDiagonalLength )
turtle.left ( 135 )
turtle.forward ( sideLength )
turtle.right ( 135 )
turtle.forward ( halfDiagonalLength )
turtle.right ( 90 )
turtle.forward ( halfDiagonalLength )
turtle.right ( 45 )
turtle.forward ( sideLength )

# Prompt to stop the program from terminating and hence the display from disappearing.

raw_input ( ’Press return to terminate the program: ’ )

Challenge 1.3 Write a program to draw the following figure: