mingbo's tech tips

the solution I got runs more than 1 second, which is terrible. Please help if you have better algorithm """ Project Euler Problem #14 ========================== The following iterative sequence is defined for the set of positive integers: n->n/2 (n is even) n->3n + 1 (n is odd) Using the rule above and starting with 13, we generate the following sequence:                   13->40->20->10->5->16->8->4->2->1 It can be seen that this sequence (starting at 13 and finishing at 1) contains 10 terms. Although it has not been proved yet (Collatz Problem), it is thought that all starting numbers finish at 1. Which starting number, under one million, produces the longest chain? NOTE: Once the chain starts the terms are allowed to go above one million. """ limit=1000000 uplimit  = limit * 3 answer = 1 maxval = 0 data = [0] * uplimit data[1] = 1 for in...

""" Project Euler Problem #12 ========================== The sequence of triangle numbers is generated by adding the natural numbers. So the 7^th triangle number would be 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28. The first ten terms would be:                  1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, ... Let us list the factors of the first seven triangle numbers:    1: 1    3: 1,3    6: 1,2,3,6   10: 1,2,5,10   15: 1,3,5,15   21: 1,3,7,21   28: 1,2,4,7,14,28 We can see that 28 is the first triangle number to have over five divisors. What is the value of the first triangle number to have over five hundred divisors? """ limit = 100000 data=[0] * limit for i in xrange(1,int(limit/2+1)):     data[i::i] = [ x+1 for x in data[i::i]] def find():     s = 1     while True:         if s % 2 == 0:           ...