Flowchart Help with Homework Equations

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ronaldo95163
  • Start date Start date
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the creation and interpretation of flowcharts for homework equations, specifically focusing on the representation of for loops within flowcharts. Participants are exploring the adequacy of their flowchart designs and the symbols used to depict loop structures.

Discussion Character

  • Homework-related
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express uncertainty about the correctness of their flowchart representations for a given homework problem.
  • One participant questions the absence of a specific flowchart symbol for a for loop, highlighting that important details of loop mechanics may be overlooked with such a symbol.
  • Another participant describes their teacher's method of representing a for loop using an "automatic counter box," detailing how the values are assigned to different parts of the box.
  • There is a concern raised that while the automatic counter box may be reasonable for high-level programming, it may not accurately reflect the complexities of loop control in lower-level programming languages, potentially leading to confusion during debugging.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the best way to represent for loops in flowcharts. There are differing opinions on the adequacy of the symbols used and the implications for understanding loop mechanics.

Contextual Notes

Participants note that the representation of for loops may vary based on the programming language context, with implications for how accurately flowcharts can depict the underlying logic.

Ronaldo95163
Messages
77
Reaction score
1

Homework Statement


Given in the picture below, part c

Homework Equations


The Attempt at a Solution

I attempted it with a flowchart shown in the pic below as well. Not sure if what I did was correct though
 

Attachments

  • flowcht.jpg
    flowcht.jpg
    30 KB · Views: 403
  • IMG_20140319_195209.jpg
    IMG_20140319_195209.jpg
    20.3 KB · Views: 469
Last edited by a moderator:
Physics news on Phys.org
Ronaldo95163 said:

Homework Statement


Given in the picture below, part c


Homework Equations





The Attempt at a Solution




I attempted it with a flowchart shown in the pic below as well. Not sure if what I did was correct though
Overall it looks OK to me, but I don't remember ever seeing a flowchart symbol to represent a for loop. Is that something you've been taught? There is a lot that goes on in a for loop that gets glossed over with such a symbol, such as the initialization of the loop counter variable, the test to get out of the loop, and the incrementing of the loop counter.
 
Our teacher showed us it as an automatic counter box, The left most value represents the starter value, the right most represents the amount to increment by each time, the top most is the variable and the bottom most is the value to end at
 
Ronaldo95163 said:
Our teacher showed us it as an automatic counter box, The left most value represents the starter value, the right most represents the amount to increment by each time, the top most is the variable and the bottom most is the value to end at

That's reasonable, but I agree w/ Mark that it glosses over the real workings. It is one thing if you use a high-level language loop control that pretty much mimics that box, but if you are writing full loop control in, say, assembly language, your flowchart will not reflect what the code really looks like and may confuse you if things go wrong and you have to debug it.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
3K
  • · Replies 69 ·
3
Replies
69
Views
23K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
6K
  • · Replies 27 ·
Replies
27
Views
5K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
3K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
2K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
3K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K