The discovery of the Catalan number is generally credited to Eugene Catalan in 1844, even though it was actually originally discovered more than 100 years earlier by the Chinese mathematician Minggatu (1730).
The nth Catalan number can be represented by the following equation:
The first few Catalan numbers for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are 1, 1, 2, 5, 14, 42, 132.
The Catalan numbers are a sequence of numbers that appear in many counting and computer science solutions.
The easiest way for me to explain the concept is by answering, How many mountain tops can you form with n upstroke and n downstroke that all stay above the original line?
The variable Cn number of mountain tops containing n pairs of matching /\ characters:
/\
/\ /\ /\ /\ / \
/\/\/\, /\/ \, / \/\, / \, / \
Let's use use textual...
