Hang Man and Word Find Games Written in Python: Using Successive Approximation and Newton Raphson's Methods:

Links to files for the Hang Man and Word Find Games in Python

Successive Approximation:

We used successive approximation to try to guess the answer to a problem and then check our guess.

If guess is wrong, keep improving it in small increments and checking it, until you determine the answer is good enough.

We also looked at Newton's Method, which uses successive approximation to to find the roots of a function.

Polynomials were represented as lists.

The index of the list was the power, and the value of the index to represent the coefficient.

We also had to compute the derivative of polynomials.

Newton's Method (also known as Newton-Raphson Method)

Newton-Raphson is a successive approximation method for finding the roots of a function, or the values of x such that f(x) = 0.

(1) iteration zero - guess some x0.

(2) check to see if a root by calcuating f(x0) within some small epsilon of 0.

(3) If f(x0) not good enough, come up with better guess of x1. "x1 = x0 - f(x0) / (deriv. of f(xo))"

(4) check to see if x1 close enough to a root. If not, make better guess x2 and check and so on.

For every x(n), that is not close enough to root, replace "x(n+1) = x(n) - f(x(n)) / (deriv. of f(x(n)))" and check.

Repeat until you have a value close enough to root.

Polynomial functions were used for simplicity.

Hang Man Game in Python

The last part of this problem set was a hang man word game.

The computer selected from a list of available words read in from a list file.

The player knows the number of letters at start of game.

Player guesses one letter per round.

Player receives immediate feedback whether letter is in word.

Each round the game displays partially guessed word so far, as well as letters player has not used yet.

Player is allowed 8 guesses.

Player loses a guess only when guessing incorrectly.

Error message displayed if same letter guessed twice, but not counted.

Game ends when player either guesses word or runs out of guesses.

Scrabble Game in Python: Rules of the Game

Links to files for the Scrabble Game in Python

Player is dealt hand of n letters chosen at random.

Player arranges hand into as many words as they want out of letters, using each letter at most once.

Some letters remain unused and are not scored.

The score for the hand is the sum of the scores for each word formed.

The score for a word is the sum of the points for letters in the word, multiplied by the length of the word, plus 50 points if all n letters are used on the first word created.

Letters are scored as in Scrabble. A=1, B=3, C=3, D=2, E=1, and so on.

A dictionary was used (key,value pair entries) to associate letter to its value for this game.

A function was used to get the frequency of a letter in a word.

When given a string of letters as input, it returns a dictionary (key,value pairs) of a letter as key, and the value was the number of occurrences of that letter in the word.