Programming Team:  Practice Contest, 1-Feb-05
Mt Lebanon HS 2004-5
David Kosbie

Link to the Programming Team Home Page.

This is a Quick Contest.  Work as individuals, not in teams.  Good luck!

1. Write a program which reads in two positive integers, s and n, and prints out (as a percentage rounded to the nearest tenth) the probability of two rolls of s-sided dice summing to the value n.
   Sample input:
      6
      7
   Sample output:
      16.7%
   (This value is output because, with s==6 and n==7, we are seeking the odds of rolling two 6-sided dice and summing to 7 -- that is, rolling a 6+1 or 5+2 or 4+3 or 3+4 or 2+5 or 1+6, which is 6/36, or 1/6, which is 0.166666.... = 16.7% when rounded.)
    
2. Write a program which reads in a non-negative integer n and prints out 1³ + 2³ + ... + n³.
    
3. Leonard Euler, one of the greatest math minds ever, proved the following:
                π²/6 = 1/1² + 1/2² + 1/3² + 1/4² + 1/5² + ...
   And so:
                π = (6 (1/1² + 1/2² + 1/3² + 1/4² + 1/5² + ... ))^1/2
   Astonishing!  Write a program which reads in a double "epsilon", and prints out the smallest integer k such that the first k terms of this series (that is, summing up to and including 1/k²) lead to an estimate of pi to within epsilon of the actual value.
    
4. The Maclaurin series for arctan(x) is a formula which allows us to compute an approximation to arctan(x) as a polynomial in x.  The formula is:
   
                arctan(x)  =  x - x³/3 + x⁵/5 - x⁷/7 + x⁹/9 - x¹¹/11 + . . .
   
   Write a program which reads in a double "x" and another double "epsilon", and prints out the smallest integer k such that the first k terms of this series compute the value of arctan(x) within epsilon of the actual value (which can be computed with Math.atan(x)).
    
5. Write a program which reads in a non-negative integer n followed by a second non-negative integer k (where 0 <= k <= n), and prints out the number of ways you can choose k items from among n total items.  We call this "n-choose-k", and the formula for "n-choose-k" is:  n! / (k! * (n-k)!).  So, for example:
        7-choose-2 = 7! / (2! * 5!) = 7*6/2 = 21.
   This means that there are 21 ways to choose 2 items from 7 total items.
    
6. Write a program which reads in a non-negative integer n and prints out n! -- that is, n factorial, which is n * (n-1) * ... * 2 * 1.
    
7. Write a program which reads in an integer in [0,100) and prints out the number of nickels that will be returned when making appropriate change for that many cents. So, if the user enters, say, 73, this represents 73 cents, which would be made as 2 quarters, 2 dimes, and 3 pennies, so your program would output 0, since no nickels are used here.
    
8. Write a program which reads in three doubles -- the lengths of the sides of a triangle -- and prints out the area of the triangle, rounded to the nearest hundredth.  Note that if the three sides cannot form a triangle, then you must print out "impossible" instead of the area.
    
9. Write a program which reads in two integers -- the hour and minute in military time (so hours run from 0 to 23, minutes from 0 to 59) -- and prints out the same time in standard time, using "a.m." and "p.m." appropriately, and without any leading 0's in the hour, and with the minutes always containing exactly two digits.
    

   Sample Input:	3 17	23 5
   Sample Output:	3:17 a.m.	11:05 p.m.

    

10. Write a program which reads in four doubles -- the slope "m1" and y-intercept "b1" of one line, then the slope "m2" and y-intercept "b2" of a second line.  Your program should print out the y-intercept of a third line which is perpendicular to the first line and which intersects the first line at the same point where the second line intersects the first line.  If the first two lines do not intersect, or if the third line could not have a y-intercept, then output "impossible".