Problem 52283. Find numbers in the Popular Computing Z-sequence

Here’s a quick one. In 1977 the magazine Popular Computing sought “problem situations for which the computer is the best (if not the only) tool for solution” and proposed the Z-sequence as a candidate “problem situation:”
a1 = a2 = 1 and a_n = |2 a_{n-2} + a_{n-1} – n| for n > 2
Among the Z-sequence’s properties, the magazine staff pointed out that “successive values seem unpredictable; that is, the values jump around, but not too wildly” and “almost every integer appears as a term in the sequence sooner or later, except for a few numbers, such as 245, 449, 569, 575, and 903.”
Write a function to find the index of the first occurrence of k (including the five numbers above) in the Popular Computing Z-sequence.

Solution Stats

72.73% Correct | 27.27% Incorrect
Last Solution submitted on May 06, 2023

Problem Comments

Solution Comments

Show comments

Problem Recent Solvers13

Suggested Problems

More from this Author277

Problem Tags

Community Treasure Hunt

Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!

Start Hunting!