Let A be the number of lattice points ( x , y ) in the disk x 2 + y 2 ≤ 1 0 0 . What is the exact value of A ?
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
Using brute force in Python:
t=set({})
for x in range(-10,11):
for y in range(-10,11):
if x**2+y**2<=100:
t.add((x,y));
len(t);
Given a disc of radius r , the number N ( r ) of lattice points inside the disk can be evaluated counting the number of lattice point on the x and y axis, which is 4 r + 1 and the number of points inside one of the quadrant multiplied by 4 . Now, considering 1 ≤ k ≤ r − 1 , it's easy to see that the number of points in a quadrant is
k = 1 ∑ r − 1 ⌊ r 2 − k 2 ⌋ .
Hence,
N ( r ) = 4 r + 1 + 4 k = 1 ∑ r − 1 ⌊ r 2 − k 2 ⌋ = 1 + 4 [ k = 1 ∑ r − 1 ⌊ r 2 − k 2 ⌋ + r ] .
When r = 1 0 we get
N ( r = 1 0 ) = 3 1 7
Problem Loading...
Note Loading...
Set Loading...
There's no easy way to do this; at least A000328 doesn't list any closed-form solution.
By counting patiently, we obtain the answer 3 1 7 . Or otherwise just go to the OEIS link above and take the term n = 1 0 (the 11th term, as it starts with n = 0 ).
When I did this, I counted in a slightly easier way than counting every point. We can divide the circle into four quarters, each quarter holding one quadrant plus one half-axis. I take one quarter that holds the positive x-axis along with the first quadrant; the remaining quarters follow (the second quarter holds the positive y-axis along with second quadrant, the third quarter holds the negative x-axis along with third quadrant, the fourth quarter holds the negative y-axis along with fourth quadrant). Thus if there are n lattice points in one quarter, the answer is 4 n + 1 as we have 4 quarters each containing n points and 1 center point ( 0 , 0 ) that doesn't belong to any quarter.
Now, observe that in the quarter we choose, all lattice points are in the form of ( x , y ) for x ≥ 0 , y ≥ 1 . Thus, if we know that all lattice points on line y = c lies on or to the left of x = d , then we can easily compute the number of such points as ⌊ d ⌋ . Additionally, we know the circle intersects y = c on the line x = 1 0 0 − c 2 by Pythagorean theorem, thus basically we're summing ∑ c = 0 ∞ ⌊ 1 0 0 − c 2 ⌋ , where the upper bound is as long as the square root is defined. Thus we obtain n = 1 0 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 8 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 4 + 0 = 7 9 by careful counting, and consequently we obtain 4 n + 1 = 3 1 7 as written above.