Jumping Jack
March 22, 2013
Here is our function to compute the minimum number of steps:
(define (jack n)
(define (diff-parity? t n)
(not (= (modulo t 2) (modulo n 2))))
(let loop ((k 0) (t 0))
(if (or (< t (abs n)) (diff-parity? t (abs n)))
(loop (+ k 1) (+ t k 1))
k)))
The basic idea is to make jumps until you equal or exceed the absolute value of the target, then continue making jumps until the parity of the target and the parity of the counter t are equal, since you can only subtract an even number.
The function that computes the jumps themselves is similar. Once you have passed the target, d is the number you have to subtract.
(define (jacks n)
(define (diff-parity? t n)
(not (= (modulo t 2) (modulo n 2))))
(if (negative? n)
(map (lambda (x) (- x)) (jacks (- n)))
(let loop ((k 0) (t 0))
(if (or (< t n) (diff-parity? t n))
(loop (+ k 1) (+ t k 1))
(let loop ((d (/ (- t n) 2)) (xs (range k 0)) (zs (list)))
(if (null? xs) zs
(if (<= (car xs) d)
(loop (- d (car xs)) (cdr xs) (cons (- (car xs)) zs))
(loop d (cdr xs) (cons (car xs) zs)))))))))
It’s easy to check the output by checking that the sum of (jacks n) is equal to n, though I don’t know any easy way to check that the result is minimal. Here’s an example:
> (jack 12)
7
> (jacks 12)
(-1 2 3 4 5 6 -7)
The sum of (-1 2 3 4 5 6 -7) is 12; the signs indicate the direction of the jumps: left, right, right, right, right, right, left.
We used range from the Standard Prelude. You can run the program at http://programmingpraxis.codepad.org/NVxW2bGK.
Programming Praxis 
[…] today’s Programming Praxis exercise, our goal is to determine the smallest amount of sequential numbers […]
My Haskell solution (see http://bonsaicode.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/programming-praxis-jumping-jack/ for a version with comments):
Assume the destiny number is k, the step is n
we are looking for a minimal value of n that n(n+1) = 2k + 4x where x is the sum of a sub set of [1…n] so x can be any positive integer(no larger than n(n+1)/2)
import math
k = 12
n = int(math.sqrt(2 * k)) + 1
while (n * (n + 1) – 2 * k) % 4 != 0:
n += 1
print n
Python – do a breadth first search of possibilities and return the first working solution
def jumping_jack(n): q = [(0,0,[0])] while len (q) > 0: cur, total, path = q.pop(0) cur = cur + 1 if total + cur == n: return path + [cur] elif total + cur * -1 == n: return path + [cur * -1] q.append((cur, total + cur, path + [cur])) q.append((cur, total + -1 * cur, path + [cur * -1])) print jumping_jack(12) [0, 1, 2, -3, 4, -5, 6, 7] print len(jumping_jack(12)) - 1 7Here is my Ruby solution (note that I’m currently learning Ruby, so feel free to suggest stylistic improvements):
module JumpingJack
# Solves the puzzle; to be used like
# JumpingJack.jump_to(122)
# => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, -7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]
def JumpingJack.jump_to(number)
number >= 0 ? jump_to_positive_number(number) : reverse_sign(jump_to_positive_number(-number))
end
private
# The algorithm works in two steps:
# – In the first step, we create the shortest array of the form [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …] so that
# the sum s of the contained numbers satisfies ‘s – number % 2 == 0’. If ‘s – number == 0’
# we are done. In any case, the resulting array has exactly the length we are looking for.
# – In the second step, we adjust the signs of the numbers from the first array so that their
# sum equals the given number.
#
def JumpingJack.jump_to_positive_number(number)
n = 0
sum = 0
ret = []
loop do
diff = sum – number
return ret if diff == 0
break if diff > 0 && diff % 2 == 0
n += 1
sum += n
ret <= number
ret[-i] = -val
break if diff == number
sum = diff
end
end
ret
end
def JumpingJack.reverse_sign(numbers)
numbers.map { |i| -i }
end
end
[\sourcecode]
Here is my Ruby solution (this time correctly formatted – please remove the other comment):
module JumpingJack # Solves the puzzle; to be used like # JumpingJack.jump_to(122) # => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, -7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16] def JumpingJack.jump_to(number) number >= 0 ? jump_to_positive_number(number) : reverse_sign(jump_to_positive_number(-number)) end private # The algorithm works in two steps: # - In the first step, we create the shortest array of the form # [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...] so that the sum s of the contained numbers # satisfies 's - number % 2 == 0'. If 's - number == 0' we are done. # In any case, the resulting array has exactly the length we are # looking for. # - In the second step, we adjust the signs of the numbers from the first # array so that their sum equals the given number. # def JumpingJack.jump_to_positive_number(number) n = 0 sum = 0 ret = [] loop do diff = sum - number return ret if diff == 0 break if diff > 0 && diff % 2 == 0 n += 1 sum += n ret << n end for i in (1..(ret.length)) val = ret[-i] diff = sum - 2 * val if diff >= number ret[-i] = -val break if diff == number sum = diff end end ret end def JumpingJack.reverse_sign(numbers) numbers.map { |i| -i } end end