Crazy Fencing

Problem description here.

Solution Code

• Python

Approach

Take in n as well as the vertical and horizontal values. Set area as 0. Realize you can factor the 1/2 out of the area of the entire shape:

$$ \frac{1}{2}(\text{area}_1) + \frac{1}{2}(\text{area}_2) + ... + \frac{1}{2}(\text{area}_n) = \frac{1}{2}\sum (\text{area}) $$

This also means we only need to divide the total area by 2 once at the very end. Since we're dividing by two, there are only two cases: the number is even (it doesn't have a decimal) or the number is odd (it has a .5 at the end). We can put a conditional at the end to check for it.