Recursion: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:30, 30 November 2023

Revision as of 21:48, 14 December 2023

Line 45:

When a procedure is thus defined, this immediately creates the possibility of an endless loop; recursion can only be properly used in a definition if the step in question is skipped in certain cases so that the procedure can complete.

But evenEven if it is properly defined, a recursive procedure is not easy for humans to perform, as it requires distinguishing the new from the old, partially executed invocation of the procedure; this requires some administration as to how far various simultaneous instances of the procedures have progressed. For this reason, recursive definitions are very rare in everyday situations.

==In language==

Line 191:

[[M. C. Escher]]'s ''[[Print Gallery (M. C. Escher)|Print Gallery]]'' (1956) is a print which depicts a distorted city containing a gallery which [[recursive]]ly contains the picture, and so ''[[ad infinitum]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cooper |first1=Jonathan |title=Art and Mathematics |url=https://unwrappingart.com/art/art-and-mathematics/ |access-date=5 July 2020 |date=5 September 2007}}</ref>

{{Clear}}

== In music ==

The song “[[State Songs|West Virginia]]” by [[John Linnell]] describes the concept of an infinitely recursive [[West Virginia]], calling the state “concentric in [its] form”.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lyrics:West Virginia - TMBW: The They Might Be Giants Knowledge Base |url=https://tmbw.net/wiki/Lyrics:West_Virginia |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=tmbw.net}}</ref>

== In culture ==