So; I'm a hobbiest who's trying to work through SICP (it's free!) and there is an example procedure in the first chapter that is meant to count the possible ways to make change with american coins; (change-maker 100) = 292. It's implemented something like: (define (change-maker amount) (define (coin-value n) (cond ((= n 1) 1) ((= n 2) 5) ((= n 3) 10) ((= n 4) 25) ((= n 5) 50))) (define (iter amount coin-type) (cond ((= amount 0) 1) ((or (= coin-type 0) (< amount 0)) 0) (else (+ (iter amount (- coin-type 1)) (iter (- amount (coin-value coin-type)) coin-type))))) (iter amount 5)) Anyway; this is a tree-recursive procedure, and the author "leaves as a challenge" finding an iterative procedure to solve the same problem (ie fixed space). I have not had luck figuring this out or finding an answer after getting frustrated. I'm wondering if it's a brain fart on my part, or if the author's screwing with me.