CS 466/666

Friday November 30

To sign up for a problem, send email to alubiw "at" uwaterloo.ca. I will update this list to indicate the first person who signs up.
  1. [Yun Lu] A robot is looking along a wall for a door that is distance d away but might be to the left or to the right. In Algorithm 0 the robot goes i steps right and back, then i steps left and back, for i = 1, 2, ... Show that the distance travelled is Theta(d^2).

  2. [James Rupke] For the same problem, Algorithm 1 doubles the distance the robot goes each time. (1 step left and back, 2 steps right and back, 4 steps left and back, . . . ) Suppose 2^i <= d < 2^{i+1}. Analyze the distance travelled, and show that it is at most 9d.