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pythonalgorithmmathgraph-algorithmpascals-triangle

Adding water to stack of glasses


I always wanted to know if there is any real-world application of Pascal's triangle than just coefficients of the binomial expansion.

I tried to solve this problem:

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enter image description here

But, What if I am adding K units of water and wants to find a glass which has the least water in it:

Where, Glass will be found as: c-th glass in r-th row

And I believe. If we could find this then it will not be difficult for us to find amount of water in any glass for which {i<r and j<c}

  • Problem:

    Input Water added- K units and capacity of each glass as 1- unit

    Output Expected : c th glass in r th row having least water in it.

I tried to solve problem by keeping note of capacity of each row when it starts overflow: and wants to know how to keep going with this method.

      1       max = 1, cap = 1
     1 1      max = 1, sum(coefficients)=2**1 = 2, cap = 2/1 
    1 2 1     max = 2, sum = 2**2, cap = 4/2 = 2 units 
   1 3 3 1    max = 3, sum = 2**3, cap = 8/3 units
  1 4 6 4 1   max = 6, sum = 2**4, cap = 16/6 units 

#Not sure but this is how it seems to me for the rate @which water is being added.

                 1
              1/2   1/2
           1/4   2/4  1/4
        1/8   3/8    3/8   1/8
     1/16  4/16  6/16   4/16  1/16  

Should I use 2-D list and define as :

Δ1, Δ2 = 0, 0
if g(n-1, k)>1 and k <= n-1:
    Δ1 = g(n-1, k) -1 
if g(n-1, k-1)>1 and k-1 <= n-1:
    Δ2 = g(n-1, k-1) - 1
g(n, k) = Δ1/2 + Δ2/2

g(n,k) = g(n-1, k-1) + g(n-1, k)

g = [[0]*(i+1) for i in range(11)]
def f(g, K):
    g[1][1] += 1
    K = K-1
    d1, d2 = 0, 0
    for n in range(2, 10):
        for k in range(1, n+1):
            if k ==1:
                g[n][k] = g[n-1][k]/2
            if k == n:
                g[n][k] = g[n-1][k-1]/2
            else:
                if g[n-1][k-1]>1:
                    d1 = g[n-1][k-1] -1
                if g[n-1][k] > 1:
                    d2 = g[n-1][k] -1
                g[n][k] = d1/2 + d2/2        
    return g, K
k = int(input())
while k:
    g, k = f(g, k)
for x in g:
    print(x)

I don't know what is missing?


Solution

  • For such small K constraint simple row-by-row filling is enough (we can store only two rows, here 2D list is used for simplicity)

    def fillGlasses(k, row, col):
        gl = [[k]]
        level = 1
        overflow_occured = True
        while overflow_occured:   # also can stop when at needed row
            print(gl[level-1])  #before overflow
            level += 1
            overflow_occured = False
            gl.append([0]*level)
            for i in range(level - 1):
                t = gl[level-2][i] - 1
                if t > 0:
                    gl[level-1][i] += t/2
                    gl[level-1][i+1] += t/2
                    gl[level-2][i] = 1
                    overflow_occured = True
        #print(gl)  #after all
        return gl[row-1][col-1]
    
    print(fillGlasses(21,8,4))
    
    [21]
    [10.0, 10.0]
    [4.5, 9.0, 4.5]
    [1.75, 5.75, 5.75, 1.75]
    [0.375, 2.75, 4.75, 2.75, 0.375]
    [0, 0.875, 2.75, 2.75, 0.875, 0]
    [0, 0, 0.875, 1.75, 0.875, 0, 0]
    [0, 0, 0, 0.375, 0.375, 0, 0, 0]
    0.375