Question

An alien spaceship has landed in your backyard full of various types of aliens. They all are saying “I come in peace”,
but you’re not so sure. You consult your
trusty guide to alien encounters to find out
that that there are three criteria that
determine if an alien is telling the truth:
number of heads, type of weapon and
intensity of their eyes.
 Friendly features: squirt gun as weapon
 Unfriendly features: weapon (as long as it’s
not a squirt gun), beady eyes, more than two
heads

 Don’t ask about the type of weapon if you know the alien does not have a weapon
 If an alien has two or more unfriendly features he is unfriendly
o So beady eyes, three heads, but no weapon & the alien is an enemy
o So squirt gun, regardless of other features, the alien is friendly

Pseudocode (10 points)
 Create the document in using Microsoft Office Word or Power Point or the Open Office equivalent, as
long as I am able to open it.
 Start with a pseudocode. Write the pseudocode in English, step by step what you need to do to solve the
problem. There are many ways this can be done. Take your time and think about it.
 No flowchart is required, but you can certainly draw one if it helps you.
 put your name, date, section, and description of the program at the top of the page.
 save the file lastname_ch3AlienPseudocode

Answer 1

The program will perform the below checks in order to solve the problem.

1. Once the alien is found, weapon check will be performed. If Alien is without weapon OR having a squirt gun , it will not be counted as enemy feature for the alien.
2. The alien can have below unfriendly feature:

1. Weapon other than squirt gun
2. Beady eyes
3. More than two heads

3. An alien will be enemy if any two or all three of the above unfriendly features are found in it.

The complete Pseudocode to solve the problem is given as below along with the detailed explanation in next section:

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START:

Set : enemyfeature = 0 //Set the unfriendly feature to 0 in starting of the program.

IF: Alien has weapon // check if the alien is having weapon

           Then: Check the weapon type   //If weapon is available, check the weapon type

                   If weapon is other than Squirt Gun, set enemyfeature = 1;

          Else: It does not have enemy weapon

ENDIF;

IF: Alien has beady eyes:

          Then: Increase the emeyfeature counter

Else IF: Alien has more than two heads:

          Then: Increate the enemyfeature counter

Else:

                             Keep the enemyfeature value same.

ENDIF;

//Let’s check the final feature count for alien and get the result

IF: enemyfeature counter >= 2 //if 2 or more enemy features are true

          Then: Alien is an enemy.

          Else: Alien is friendly.

ENDIF

END Program

         

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Explanation of pseudocode for a better understanding:

The Pseudocode is explained in 4 steps

1. To keep records for the count of unfriendly feature in the enemy, enemyfeature counter variable is used.

Set : enemyfeature = 0

2. First IF statement will check if the weapon is available with the Alien. If it is available and other than Squirt Gun, enemyfeature will get increased by 1.

IF: Alien has weapon // check if the alien is having weapon

           Then: Check the weapon type   //If weapon is available, check the weapon type

                   If weapon is other than Squirt Gun, set enemyfeature = 1;

          Else: It does not have enemy weapon

ENDIF;

3. Other two unfriendly features will be checked in the below section of pseudocode and enemyfeature counter will get increased by 1 if any of the feature is available in the alien. If both of the features are found in the enemy, the enemyfeature will increase by 2.

IF: Alien has beady eyes:

     Then: Increase the emeyfeature counter

Else IF: Alien has more than two heads:

               Then: Increate the enemyfeature counter

Else:

                        Keep the enemyfeature value same.

ENDIF;

4. At the end of the code, value of enemyfeature will be checked. If it is more than 2, the alien will be declared as enemy alien.

IF: enemyfeature counter >= 2 //if 2 or more enemy features are true

     Then: Alien is an enemy.

     Else: Alien is friendly.

ENDIF

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Please let me know if more clarification is required.