MATLAB Central Newsreader - making non integer values sum to n

making non integer values sum to n

Tim Smith — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:00:13 -0500

Sorry for previous post it was slightly incorrect:
Can anyone help me with this problem

where n is divisible by 4 and n,a,b are any real integers such that a+b<(n/2)

i need to create a statement such that:

integer((n-a-b)/4) + a + integer((n-a-b)/2) + b + integer((n-a-b)/2) = n

can anyone help?

Re: making non integer values sum to n

John D'Errico — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:19:02 -0500

Re: making non integer values sum to n

ImageAnalyst — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:28:19 -0500

On Nov 20, 6:00=A0pm, Tim Smith <imaccorm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry for previous post it was slightly incorrect:
> Can anyone help me with this problem
>
> where n is divisible by 4 and n,a,b are any real integers such that a+b<(=
n/2)
>
> i need to create a statement such that:
>
> integer((n-a-b)/4) + a + integer((n-a-b)/2) + b + integer((n-a-b)/2) =3D =
n
>
> can anyone help?

------------------------------------------------------------
Why not just do a brute force iteration over all possible combinations
of integers n, a,and b? I'm sure you'll get a whole boat load of
numbers - more than you could possibly want. You could probably get
millions of sets in a few seconds. Have at it.

Re: making non integer values sum to n

Roger Stafford — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:53:02 -0500

Tim Smith <imaccormick@gmail.com> wrote in message <17829314.1227222052740.JavaMail.jakarta@nitrogen.mathforum.org>...
> Sorry for previous post it was slightly incorrect:
> Can anyone help me with this problem
>
> where n is divisible by 4 and n,a,b are any real integers such that a+b<(n/2)
>
> i need to create a statement such that:
>
> integer((n-a-b)/4) + a + integer((n-a-b)/2) + b + integer((n-a-b)/2) = n
>
> can anyone help?

  Your query is marred by a lack of clarity, Tim. Besides the unclear phrase "create a statement" which John has pointed out, you don't make it clear what you mean by "integer" in "integer((n-a-b)/4)". You also speak of "real integers". What else can an integer be but real?

  Let's assume that by "integer(x)" you mean the "integer part of" as in Matlab's 'fix' function. Substituting p for n-a-b in your equation gives the equivalent equation

fix(p/4) + 2*fix(p/2) = p

  It is easy to show that there can be only seven possible integer solutions for p here: p = -7, -5, -2, 0, 2, 5, and 7. However, for each of these there will be infinitely many possible combinations of n, a, and b that would satisfy all your conditions. For example, n = 12 and any pair of integers, a and b whose sum is 5, of which there are infinitely many, would be solutions.

  In my mind this raises the question as to whether you have stated your problem correctly.

Roger Stafford