Helping Hand Questions for Scripting-and-Programming-Foundations

 Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm is designed to find the shortest path between nodes in a graph. This can be applied to various scenarios, such as routing problems, network optimization, and in this case, determining the most fuel-efficient flight plan. The algorithm works by iteratively selecting the unvisited vertex with the smallest tentative distance from the source, then visiting the neighbors of this vertex and updating their tentative distances if a shorter path is found. This process continues until the destination vertex is reached or all reachable vertices have been visited.

In the context of the given options, Dijkstra’s algorithm is best suited for option B, where the goal is to find the most fuel-efficient path (i.e., the shortest path) between multiple points (coordinates of five positions). The algorithm is not designed to solve problems like searching for an element in an array (option A), finding the longest common subsequence (option C), or searching for a name in a list (option D).

References:

• GeeksforGeeks article on Dijkstra’s Algorithm1
• Wikipedia page on Dijkstra’s Algorithm2
• Programiz explanation of Dijkstra’s Algorithm3

 When calling a function in Python, you simply give the name of the function followed by parentheses. Even if the function doesn’t take any arguments, you still need to include the parentheses. For example, print("Hello!") is a function call. The function name should describe what it’s supposed to do. Function definitions begin with the def keyword, followed by the function name and parameters (if any). The statements within the function definition are indented and carry out the task the function is supposed to perform2. References:

• Function Calls and Definitions – Real Python
• Function Calls | Microsoft Learn
• Stack Overflow: Find all function calls by a function

The pseudocode provided is a loop that runs 3 times. Each time it runs, it adds the loop counter i (which takes the values 1, 2, and 3 in each iteration) to a sum variable total. The sum starts at 15, and the loop adds 1, then 2, then 3 to it. So the calculation is as follows:

total=15+1+2+3=21

This means that after the loop finishes executing, the total will be 21.

References: The explanation is based on the standard understanding of loops and summation in programming logic as per Scripting and Programming Foundations principles12. Pseudocode is a high-level description of an algorithm that uses the structural conventions of programming languages but is intended for human reading rather than machine reading12. This pseudocode represents a simple loop structure commonly used in programming to accumulate a sum.

1: Pseudocode Examples – Programming Code Examples 2: Ada Computer Science - Pseudocode

A language characterized by a series of method calls is typically referred to as a functional language. In functional programming, computation is treated as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changing-state and mutable data. It is a declarative programming paradigm, which means programming is done with expressions or declarations instead of statements. In functional languages, functions are first-class citizens, meaning they can be passed as arguments to other functions, returned as values from other functions, and assigned to variables.

References: The information is based on the general characteristics of functional programming languages as they are known for treating functions as first-class citizens and focusing on the application of functions. This is in contrast to procedural programming, which involves a series of procedural method calls to form a hierarchy of operations1.