Exercise 1.10

The following procedure computes a mathematical function called Ackermann's function:

(define (A x y)
        (cond ((= y 0) 0)
              ((= x 0) (* 2 y))
              ((= y 1) 2)
              (else (A (- x 1)
                       (A x (- y 1))
                    )
              )
        )
)

First question

What are the values of the following expressions?

(A 1 10)
(A 2 4)
(A 3 3)

First answer

In neither case, the value of y or x fall into the conditional shortcuts. We thus need to recursively comput the else branch.

(A 1 10)
(A 0 (A 1 9))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 1 8))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 7))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 6)))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 5))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 4)))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 3))))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 2)))))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 1))))))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 2)))))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 4))))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 8)))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 16))))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 32)))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 64))))
(A 0 (A 0 (A 0 128)))
(A 0 (A 0 256))
(A 0 512)
1024

(A 2 4)
(A 1 (A 2 3))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 2 2)))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 1 (A 2 1))))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 1 2)))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 0 (A 1 1))))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 0 2)))
(A 1 (A 1 4))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 1 3)))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 2))))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 1)))))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 2))))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 0 4)))
(A 1 (A 0 8))
(A 1 16)
; we'll now go through the same process
; as we did for (A 1 10), where we end up
; with 2**y, in this case 2**16 = 65536

(A 3 3)
(A 2 (A 3 2))
(A 2 (A 2 (A 3 1)))
(A 2 (A 2 2))
(A 2 (A 1 (A 2 1)))
(A 2 (A 1 2))
(A 2 (A 0 (A 1 1)))
(A 2 (A 0 2))
(A 2 4)
(A 1 (A 2 3))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 2 2)))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 1 (A 2 1))))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 1 2)))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 0 (A 1 1))))
(A 1 (A 1 (A 0 2)))
(A 1 (A 1 4))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 1 3)))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 2))))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 (A 1 1)))))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 0 (A 0 2))))
(A 1 (A 0 (A 0 4)))
(A 1 (A 0 8))
(A 1 16)
; again we fall back to (A 1 16) which
; we know is 2**16.

Question 2

Consider the following procedures, where A is the procedure defined above:

(define (f n) (A 0 n))
(define (g n) (A 1 n))
(define (h n) (A 2 n))
(define (k n) (* 5 n n))

Give concise mathematical definitions for the functions computed by the procedures f, g, and h for positive integer values of n. For example, (k n) computes 5n**2.

Second Answer

f -> 2*n g -> 2n for n > 0. h -> 2(2**(2**(...))) n times.

Auxiliary python script to print the recursion for x and y.

def p(x, y):
    print(f"(A {x-1} (A {x} {y-1}))")