I am trying to write a loop that calculates the total of the following series of numbers: 1/30 +2/29+3/28+…+30/1. I'm having trouble figuring out how to add, because the program below just displays the total as 0.033333333....
def main():
A=1
B=30
sum=(A/B)
while A<=30:
A+=1
B-=1
print('Total:',sum)
main()
You are not adding anything to sum on each iteration. You must add
sum = sum + A / B
inside the while loop. But you have to initialize sum with zero:
sum = 0
Note:
Don't use sum as name of a variable because it's a built-in function of Python. You can call that variable result, my_sum, ...
Code:
def main():
A = 1
B = 30
result = 0
while A <= 30:
print A, B
result += (A / B)
A += 1
B -= 1
print('Total:', result)
main()
Also:
You can see that in each term of the sum, A + B == 31, so B == 31 - A. Therefore, the code can be simplified:
def main():
A = 1
result = 0
while A <= 30:
result += (float(A) / (30 - A + 1))
A += 1
print('Total:', result)
Create two lists of the desired numbers, compute the value of each fraction, then sum then.
sum(( a/b for a,b in zip(range(1,31),range(30,0,-1))))
0.0333..., he must be using Python 3.xYou may mean this to be your code:
def main():
A=1
B=30
sume= A/B
while B>1:
A+=1
B-=1
sume += A/B
print('Total:',sume)
main()
Moreover, you shouldn't override sum unless you know you are not using it in your program elsewhere. sum is a reserved word in python.
total = 0.0
for x in range(1, 31, 1):
z = x / (31-x)
total += z
print(f'The total is {total:.2f}.')
f = sum(fractions.Fraction(i, 31-i) for i in range(1, 31)); print(f, float(f))