General case: repeats over and over again

Base case: the way to return without making a recursive call

public static void ClimbStairs()
	if (atTopOfStairs == true) // base case
		done
	else //general case
		step up
		ClimbStairs

Math sequence

Consider the sequence: 3, 6, 12, 24...

multiply the previous term by 2

Define mathematically:

$t_1 = 3$ (base case)

$t_n=t_{n-1}*2$ (general case), defined for $n >1$

Pseudocode:

calcTerm(n)
	if n = 1 //base case
		return 3
	else //general case
		return 2*calcTerm(n-1)

Determine $t_3$

//inside logic of the recursive method
calcTerm(3)
=2*calcTerm(2)
=2*(2*calcTerm(1))
=2*(2*3)
=2*(6)
=12

Java Code:

public static int calcTerm(int n){
	if (n==1){ //base case
		return 3;
	}
	
	else { //general case
		return 2*calcTerm(n-1)
	}

}

public static void main(String[]args){
	System.out.println(calcTerm(1));
}

practise 1

practice 2

ICS4U_Recursion_SamarQureshi