Brain Teaser: Multiply by 6

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Lee

How do I go about multiplying a real number n by 6 in python without using the * or the + operators?

Solution:

x6 = lambda n: (n<<3) - n - n

Rationale:

n<<3 is equivalent to multiplying n by 2**3 or 8n. To reach 6n, we simply subtract 2n.

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