rectangle problem using loops - alternating between intervals given a pt

[showtime3000]

Hi. I'm trying to solve this problem below. It seems really difficult. The purpose of this problem from http://www.cs.duke.edu/courses/cps14...6/allprobs.pdf is not to use recursion, but make use of loops.

A rectangle with sides parallel to the x-y axes and its left-lower corner at (0, 0) is being painted. The rectangle may be thought of as a flat-screen display with almost infinite resolution; initially the entire rectangle is black. Two numbers are given 0 < h < 1, 0 < v < 1 and then
1)A vertical line is drawn dividing the horizontal sides of the rectangle in proportion h:1−h from the left.
2)A horizontal line is drawn dividing the vertical sides of the rectangles in proportion v:1−v from the bottom up.
3)These two lines divide the rectangle into four smaller rectangles.
4)The upper left and the lower right sub-rectangles remain intact.
5)The color of the other two rectangles is flipped (from black to white or from white to black) and now each of them is subject to the operation just performed on the bigger rectangle.
6)This process continues (in principle) forever.

Given a point in the original rectangle but not on the boundary of any rectangle that turns up in the process of painting, determine the color of the point.

If anyone can please help. Thanks

[ProgramThis]

If anyone can please help. Thanks

Alright, what kind of help do you need? This is a school assignment, which we do not do "for" you here. We'll be glad to "help" once we know exactly what kind of help you need.

[showtime3000]

I just need to know if there is a mathematical formula to solve this or just a logical formula (using if statements) to solve it. Is it possible to use a for loop within a while loop or just one or the other. Thanks

[dlorde]

The point of the exercise is that you have to work out how to do it. I suggest working a few examples by hand on paper to get a good understanding of the steps involved. Then you can decide the most appropriate loops to use.

Whether you use a 'for' loop or a 'while' loop doesn't really make a great deal of difference - a 'for' loop is logically equivalent to a 'while' loop. Use whichever you are most comfortable with, but work out exactly how to do it by hand first.

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think...
Socrates