The function derivative computes the derivative of a polynomial; the degree of each entry needs to be reduced by one, each entry must be multiplied by the previous degree, and the term at degree[0] needs to be removed.
This code
lst = [1,2,3] """This list represents the polynomial 3x^2+2x+1"""
"""This function moves each entry one index down and removes the last
entry"""
def move(lst):
copy = list(lst)
for i in range(len(lst)):
lst[i-1] = copy[i]
del lst[-1]
print lst
move(lst)
produces this:
Samuels-MacBook:python baicle$ python problemset2.py
[2, 3]
This code:
def derivative(poly):
copy = list(poly)
degree = 0
for i in range(len(poly)):
i = degree*(i+1)
poly[i-1] = copy[i]
degree += 1
del poly[-1]
print poly
derivative(lst)
produces this error:
Samuels-MacBook:python baicle$ python problemset2.py
Traceback (most recent call last): File "problemset2.py", line 59,
in <module>
derivative(lst) File "problemset2.py", line 55, in derivative
poly[i-1] = copy[i] IndexError: list index out of range