What does this statement mean "Use a for loop to move x = 'a' half the distance to 'b' and do it 'n' times."

I am creating a function m file called mystepcloser, this is the information I was provided with.

mystepcloser(a,b,n) which takes three inputs:

a: A real number.

b: A real number which you may assume is greater than 'a'.

n: A positive integer.

Does: Uses a for loop to move x = 'a' half the distance to 'b' and do it 'n' times.

Returns: The final value of 'a'.

I do not understand what it is suppose to do. What does it mean to move x='a' half the distance to 'b' and do it 'n' times. How would I go about creating a for loop that does this, and how would I make the for loop return the final value of 'a'?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/8626-how-do-i-get-help-on-homework-questions-on-matlab-answers

Use a for loop

for k = 1 : n

In the for loop have a value called aNew that will get updated with the latest value of a. aNew starts at b. At each iteration calculate the difference between a and aNew - this is the distance. Divide the distance by 2 and add it to "a" to get a new aNew. This will go on "n" times and when you're done set a=aNew because you're supposed to have the final value in a. Actually the function should return the value

function aNew = mystepcloser(a,b,n)

If you do that you don't need to stuff aNew into a since the final value, aNew, is being returned. Good luck finishing the code. It's actually very easy.

Answer 2

[David Young]

Suppose a is 3 and b is 7. Then the 'distance' from a to b is 4, half the distance is 2, and moving a that much towards b means adding 2 to a to make it 5. Then do it again and a becomes 6 ... and so on.