[Help] Need some explanations

[Meryel]

i dont get what i need to do here....actualy i dont get anything here....plz explain in normal english what are they telling me...i dont get the sequance either....ai=a0 and etc. thanks beforehand.....realy need explanations for this.....

[TheGreatCthulhu]

Well, it's not terribly complicated, you just need to read it carefully (math freaks you out?), and maybe work it out a bit on paper.

Basically, your program should calculate a sequence of numbers, according to a formula, and find the largest one among them. It takes a TXT file as input; in the file, each line represents the maximum index, n, for the sequence (note that the sequence itself has n+1 numbers in it). The program runs for each line (that is, for each n), finds the corresponding largest number, and writes a line to the Output.txt file.

So, the sequence is, in abstract terms: a[0], a[1], a[2], ..., a[n]. The i that appears in the text up there is the index (just like for an array in a for loop: a[i]).

Next, you have a recursive definition of the sequence, which tells you how to actually calculate the numbers; the first two elements are known:

a[0] = 0
a[1] = 1

Then it says - for each number i, here's how to calculate the elements at indices (2*i) and (2*i + 1):

a[2*i] = a[i]
a[2*i + 1] = a[i] + a[i + 1] ____ --> that is: a[i] + the next one

which really means:

a[even index e] = a[e/2]
a[odd index o] = a[(o-1)/2] + the next one

and so on, until you get to a[n].

For example:

i:       a:
----------------------------
0        0   (given)
1        1   (given)
2        1   (same as a[1])
3        2   (a[1] + a[2])
4        1   (same as a[2])
5        3   (a[2] + a[3])  <--- it's the largest number

So, you calculate all the required numbers (n+1 of them) one way or another, storing each in an array, or better yet, in a List<T>, and then find the largest number, and write it out to a file.
Then you go onto the next n from the input file, if any.

You can have an iterative or a recursive solution, whichever suits you better.