Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 17 views

    Tempus Et Mobilius. Time and Motion: Tempus Est Mensura Motus Rerum Mobilium

    Uploaded by

    Hello mister
    The document describes how a ball clock works to keep time by moving ball bearings between different tracks that indicate minutes, five minutes, and hours. Every minute, the least recently used ball is removed and deposited on the minutes track. When a track gets full, the balls run back to the queue in reverse order, and the extra ball moves to the next track. This predictable changing ordering of the balls allows the clock to keep track of time elapsed since a starting configuration, until the orderings begin to repeat. The input defines different ball clocks by the number of balls, and the program must output how many days elapse before each clock returns to its initial ordering.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Tempus Et Mobilius. Time and Motion: Tempus Est Mensura Motus Rerum Mobilium

    Uploaded by

    Hello mister
    17 views2 pages
    The document describes how a ball clock works to keep time by moving ball bearings between different tracks that indicate minutes, five minutes, and hours. Every minute, the least recently used ball is removed and deposited on the minutes track. When a track gets full, the balls run back to the queue in reverse order, and the extra ball moves to the next track. This predictable changing ordering of the balls allows the clock to keep track of time elapsed since a starting configuration, until the orderings begin to repeat. The input defines different ball clocks by the number of balls, and the program must output how many days elapse before each clock returns to its initial ordering.

    Original Description:

    uva problem 239

    Original Title

    239

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document describes how a ball clock works to keep time by moving ball bearings between different tracks that indicate minutes, five minutes, and hours. Every minute, the least recently used ball is removed and deposited on the minutes track. When a track gets full, the balls run back to the queue in reverse order, and the extra ball moves to the next track. This predictable changing ordering of the balls allows the clock to keep track of time elapsed since a starting configuration, until the orderings begin to repeat. The input defines different ball clocks by the number of balls, and the program must output how many days elapse before each clock returns to its initial ordering.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    17 views2 pages

    Tempus Et Mobilius. Time and Motion: Tempus Est Mensura Motus Rerum Mobilium

    Uploaded by

    Hello mister
    The document describes how a ball clock works to keep time by moving ball bearings between different tracks that indicate minutes, five minutes, and hours. Every minute, the least recently used ball is removed and deposited on the minutes track. When a track gets full, the balls run back to the queue in reverse order, and the extra ball moves to the next track. This predictable changing ordering of the balls allows the clock to keep track of time elapsed since a starting configuration, until the orderings begin to repeat. The input defines different ball clocks by the number of balls, and the program must output how many days elapse before each clock returns to its initial ordering.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    239 Tempus et mobilius.

    Time and motion


    Tempus est mensura motus rerum mobilium.
    Time is the measure of movement.
    —Auctoritates Aristotelis

    ...and movement has long been used to measure time. For ex-
    ample, the ball clock is a simple device which keeps track of the
    passing minutes by moving ball- bearings. Each minute, a rotat-
    ing arm removes a ball bearing from the queue at the bottom,
    raises it to the top of the clock and deposits it on a track leading
    to indicators displaying minutes, five-minutes and hours. These
    indicators display the time between 1:00 and 12:59, but without
    ‘a.m.’ or ‘p.m.’ indicators. Thus 2 balls in the minute indica-
    tor, 6 balls in the five- minute indicator and 5 balls in the hour
    indicator displays the time 5:32.
    Unfortunately, most commercially available ball clocks do not
    incorporate a date indication, although this would be simple to do
    with the addition of further carry and indicator tracks. However,
    all is not lost! As the balls migrate through the mechanism of the
    clock, they change their relative ordering in a predictable way. Careful study of these orderings will
    therefore yield the time elapsed since the clock had some specific ordering. The length of time which
    can be measured is limited because the orderings of the balls eventually begin to repeat. Your program
    must compute the time before repetition, which varies according to the total number of balls present.
    Operation of the Ball Clock
    Every minute, the least recently used ball is removed from the queue of balls at the bottom of the
    clock, elevated, then deposited on the minute indicator track, which is able to hold four balls. When
    a fifth ball rolls on to the minute indicator track, its weight causes the track to tilt. The four balls
    already on the track run back down to join the queue of balls waiting at the bottom in reverse order
    of their original addition to the minutes track. The fifth ball, which caused the tilt, rolls on down to
    the five-minute indicator track. This track holds eleven balls. The twelfth ball carried over from the
    minutes causes the five-minute track to tilt, returning the eleven balls to the queue, again in reverse
    order of their addition. The twelfth ball rolls down to the hour indicator. The hour indicator also
    holds eleven balls, but has one extra fixed ball which is always present so that counting the balls in
    the hour indicator will yield an hour in the range one to twelve. The twelfth ball carried over from the
    five-minute indicator causes the hour indicator to tilt, returning the eleven free balls to the queue, in
    reverse order, before the twelfth ball itself also returns to the queue.

    Input
    The input defines a succession of ball clocks. Each clock operates as described above. The clocks differ
    only in the number of balls present in the queue at one o’clock when all the clocks start. This number
    is given for each clock, one per line and does not include the fixed ball on the hours indicator. Valid
    numbers are in the range 27 to 7000. A zero signifies the end of input.
    Universidad de Valladolid OJ: 239 – Tempus et mobilius. Time and motion 2/2

    Output
    For each clock described in the input, your program should report the number of balls given in the input
    and the number of days (24-hour periods) which elapse before the clock returns to its initial ordering.
    Output will always fit in a 64-bit integer.

    Sample Input
    30
    45
    0

    Sample Output
    30 balls cycle after 15 days.
    45 balls cycle after 378 days.

    You might also like