my attempt to do the exercises in sicp.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

sicp exercise 1.15


;  Exercise 1.15.  The sine of an angle (specified in radians) can be computed by making use of the
;  approximation sin x  x if x is sufficiently small, and the trigonometric identity

to reduce the size of the argument of sin. (For purposes of this exercise an angle is considered ``sufficiently small'' if its magnitude is not greater than 0.1 radians.) These ideas are incorporated in the following procedures:

(define (cube x) (* x x x))
(define (p x) (- (* 3 x) (* 4 (cube x))))
(define (sine angle)
   (if (not (> (abs angle) 0.1))
       angle
       (p (sine (/ angle 3.0)))))

a.  How many times is the procedure p applied when (sine 12.15) is evaluated?

b.  What is the order of growth in space and number of steps (as a function of a) used by the process generated by the sine procedure when (sine a) is evaluated?


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