[Tutor] Need help solving this problem
I have been teaching myself Python using a book. The chapter I am on currently, covers branching, while loops and program planning. I am stuck on on of the challenges at the end of this chapter, and I was hoping to get some help with this. Here it is: Write a program that flips a coin 100 times and the tells you the number of heads and tails. I have tried to think about several ways to go about doing this but I have hit a wall. Even though I understand the general concept of branching and looping, I have been having trouble writing a program with these. I look forward to your reply that will help me understand these structures better. Sincerely, Raj ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Need help solving this problem
hi! This is how I would do it, but I'm still learning this too, so I'm very much open for suggestions. Cheers!! Albert-Jan import random def draw (): return random.sample([head, tail], 1) def toss (): heads, tails = 0, 0 for flip in range(100): if draw() == [head]: heads += 1 else: tails += 1 return heads, tails for attempt in range(20): print attempt:, attempt+1, heads:, toss()[0], tails:, toss()[1] --- On Wed, 6/10/09, Raj Medhekar cosmicsan...@yahoo.com wrote: From: Raj Medhekar cosmicsan...@yahoo.com Subject: [Tutor] Need help solving this problem To: Python Tutor tutor@python.org Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2009, 10:08 PM I have been teaching myself Python using a book. The chapter I am on currently, covers branching, while loops and program planning. I am stuck on on of the challenges at the end of this chapter, and I was hoping to get some help with this. Here it is: Write a program that flips a coin 100 times and the tells you the number of heads and tails. I have tried to think about several ways to go about doing this but I have hit a wall. Even though I understand the general concept of branching and looping, I have been having trouble writing a program with these. I look forward to your reply that will help me understand these structures better. Sincerely, Raj -Inline Attachment Follows- ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Need help solving this problem
What you are looking at is a simulation whereby a coin having 2 outcomes (heads or tails) is flipped exactly 100 times. You need to tell how many times the coin falls heads up and how many times the coin falls tails up. First become familiar with the random module. Assign a value of 1 for heads and a value of 2 for tails. Then you are going to use a structure of the random module which will return only two possible outcomes. Either a one or a two. You are going to loop (look at range(1,101) or range(0,100). (Side question; why 101 or 0 to 100?; look closely at the meaning of the range arguments). Simply count the number of ones and the number of two's in the 100 flips then print the results. Good luck. Robert On Wed, 2009-06-10 at 13:08 -0700, Raj Medhekar wrote: I have been teaching myself Python using a book. The chapter I am on currently, covers branching, while loops and program planning. I am stuck on on of the challenges at the end of this chapter, and I was hoping to get some help with this. Here it is: Write a program that flips a coin 100 times and the tells you the number of heads and tails. I have tried to think about several ways to go about doing this but I have hit a wall. Even though I understand the general concept of branching and looping, I have been having trouble writing a program with these. I look forward to your reply that will help me understand these structures better. Sincerely, Raj ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Need help solving this problem
Hi Raj, I'm another learner, I used the following: def toss(n): heads = 0 for i in range(n): heads += random.randint(0,1) return heads, n-heads print %d heads, %d tails % toss(100) Best of luck in your python endeavors! 2009/6/10 Raj Medhekar cosmicsan...@yahoo.com: I have been teaching myself Python using a book. The chapter I am on currently, covers branching, while loops and program planning. I am stuck on on of the challenges at the end of this chapter, and I was hoping to get some help with this. Here it is: Write a program that flips a coin 100 times and the tells you the number of heads and tails. I have tried to think about several ways to go about doing this but I have hit a wall. Even though I understand the general concept of branching and looping, I have been having trouble writing a program with these. I look forward to your reply that will help me understand these structures better. Sincerely, Raj ___ Tutor maillist - tu...@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Need help solving this problem
Raj Medhekar wrote: I have been teaching myself Python using a book. The chapter I am on currently, covers branching, while loops and program planning. I am stuck on on of the challenges at the end of this chapter, and I was hoping to get some help with this. Here it is: Write a program that flips a coin 100 times and the tells you the number of heads and tails. I have tried to think about several ways to go about doing this but I have hit a wall. Even though I understand the general concept of branching and looping, I have been having trouble writing a program with these. I look forward to your reply that will help me understand these structures better. Sincerely, Raj ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor I am learning also, I came up with; #!/usr/bin/python import random random = random.Random() choice = ['heads', 'tails'] head_wins = 0 tail_wins = 0 def coin_flip(): flip = random.choice(choice) global head_wins global tail_wins if flip == 'heads': head_wins += 1 elif flip == 'tails': tail_wins += 1 def number_flips(): for i in range(100): coin_flip() number_flips() print 'Head Total Wins =', head_wins print 'Tail Total Wins =', tail_wins -- Powered by Gentoo GNU/Linux http://linuxcrazy.com ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Need help solving this problem
Raj Medhekar cosmicsan...@yahoo.com wrote Write a program that flips a coin 100 times and the tells you the number of heads and tails. I have tried to think about several ways to go about doing this but I have hit a wall. Even though I understand the general concept of branching and looping, I have been having trouble writing a program with these. You also need to understand the concept of variables as data stores. And you will probably need to use a mechanism to generate random values. The random module will help or you can simply read the time and strip off the last two digits - that will be good enough for your purposes! Otherwise take a look at my tutorial for the various topics Raw Materials - variables and data Loops Branches File handling - for a very brief intro to reading the time HTH, -- Alan Gauld Author of the Learn to Program web site http://www.alan-g.me.uk/ ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Need help solving this problem
Raj Medhekar wrote: I have been teaching myself Python using a book. The chapter I am on currently, covers branching, while loops and program planning. I am stuck on on of the challenges at the end of this chapter, and I was hoping to get some help with this. Here it is: Write a program that flips a coin 100 times and the tells you the number of heads and tails. I have tried to think about several ways to go about doing this but I have hit a wall. Even though I understand the general concept of branching and looping, I have been having trouble writing a program with these. I look forward to your reply that will help me understand these structures better. Sincerely, Raj ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor A very simple solution import random # you need to import this module to generate random # numbers heads = 0; #init number of heads; tails = 0; #init number of tails; cnt = 0 # variable to store number of coin tosses while cnt100: # we want this loop to 100 times toss = random.randrange(0,2,1) # this line will randomly choose # between 0 and 1 if toss == 0: tails += 1 # if the random generator gives 0, then we increase # count of tail by one else: heads += 1 # if the random generator gives 1, then we increase # count of head by one cnt += 1 # increase count of coin toss by one print Number of heads, heads # print the number of heads print Number of tails, tails # print the number of tails raw_input(\nPress enter to exit) ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
