CT240 lab1

CT240 lab1

http://geminga.it.nuigalway.ie/~gettrick/courses/CT240/labs/l1.html

For this lab you must submit a printout of all source code (python files), and the result(s) of running the program on (a few) test cases. The source code must be well presented (indenting, spaces, reasonable variable/function names, etc.) and must include comments (as a rough guideline - aim to have nearly as many comments as lines of code). Any questions asked should be answered on a plain sheet of paper.
The above material should be given to Paul or left in the cardboard box marked CT240 in the mail room (room IT415) on the 4th floor of the IT Building before the deadline of 5pm Monday 22nd. September 2008. You will lose 20% for each day (or part of day) the lab is late.
Plagiarism (the unattributed copying of work from other sources (internet, fellow students,....)) will not be tolerated. Please see http://www.nuigalway.ie/engineering/documents/plagiarism_guide_students _v4.pdf. You risk getting zero for your lab if it is found to be plagiarized.

You should first experiment with some of the programs for calculating x^y at http://grobner.it.nuigalway.ie/python/.

Look specifically at the recursive program http://grobner.it.nuigalway.ie/python/rec1.py. From the description of binary powering, and the programs shown in lectures, write a python program that calculates x^y using recursive binary powering.

Using your program, calculate

3²⁷
1.0000001^99999999
-1.0000001⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹

Would you expect your program to run quicker for 2⁵¹¹ or 2¹⁰²⁴? Calculate how many times the function in your recursive program is called in each of these two cases.