• Write a program that will take an integer
number n input from the user, and then
output the value of the sum of the series
• S = 12 + 22 + 32+….. + n2
Sounds like a bad idea. If the program takes an integer
from the user each time it is run, how can the user get the
integer back again? Think of how inconvenient it would be if
you gave away 3, say, and could never use it again: You could
never again sing "Three Blind Mice" or listen to the Threepenny
Opera or celebrate Epiphany, or ride in a train powered by an
electrified third rail. The Holy Trinity would reject you, and
the entire month of March would be lost to you forever!
You could, I guess, select an "unlikely" integer as the
one to give away, but it seems awfully hard to choose one that
you're certain you'll never need again. The very fact that
you chose it once indicates that it is far more likely to crop
up than almost all other integers. Also, if you give the
integer to an early version of the program, discover that the
program has a bug, and fix it, how will you test the fix? You
no longer have the integer that caused the misbehavior, and
can thus not be sure you've actually fixed the problem.
Wahid, I think you should go to your teacher and point out
these serious drawbacks. Tell him or her that the assignment
threatens those who complete it with a sort of progressive
innumeracy by depriving them of another integer each time they
run the code. Tell him or her, in short, that he or she is
either a sadist or a fool, and ask for a substitute assignment.
No, not "ask," but "demand:" it's your right as a diligent
student.