Lattice Points

Let A A be the number of lattice points ( x , y ) (x,y) in the disk x 2 + y 2 100 x^2 +y^2\le 100 . What is the exact value of A A ?


The answer is 317.

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3 solutions

Ivan Koswara
Sep 8, 2014

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 317 \boxed{317} . Or otherwise just go to the OEIS link above and take the term n = 10 n=10 (the 11th term, as it starts with n = 0 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 n lattice points in one quarter, the answer is 4 n + 1 4n+1 as we have 4 4 quarters each containing n n points and 1 1 center point ( 0 , 0 ) (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 ) (x,y) for x 0 , y 1 x \ge 0, y \ge 1 . Thus, if we know that all lattice points on line y = c y=c lies on or to the left of x = d x=d , then we can easily compute the number of such points as d \lfloor d \rfloor . Additionally, we know the circle intersects y = c y=c on the line x = 100 c 2 x=\sqrt{100-c^2} by Pythagorean theorem, thus basically we're summing c = 0 100 c 2 \sum_{c=0}^{\infty} \lfloor \sqrt{100-c^2} \rfloor , where the upper bound is as long as the square root is defined. Thus we obtain n = 10 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 8 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 4 + 0 = 79 n = 10+9+9+9+9+8+8+7+6+4+0 = 79 by careful counting, and consequently we obtain 4 n + 1 = 317 4n+1 = 317 as written above.

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);
Nicola Mignoni
Aug 29, 2019

Given a disc of radius r r , the number N ( r ) N(r) of lattice points inside the disk can be evaluated counting the number of lattice point on the x x and y y axis, which is 4 r + 1 4r+1 and the number of points inside one of the quadrant multiplied by 4 4 . Now, considering 1 k r 1 1 \leq k \leq r-1 , it's easy to see that the number of points in a quadrant is

k = 1 r 1 r 2 k 2 \displaystyle \sum_{k=1}^{r-1} \lfloor \sqrt{r^2-k^2} \rfloor .

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 ] \displaystyle N(r)=4r+1+4\sum_{k=1}^{r-1} \lfloor \sqrt{r^2-k^2} \rfloor=1+4\Bigg[\sum_{k=1}^{r-1} \lfloor \sqrt{r^2-k^2} \rfloor+r \Bigg] .

When r = 10 r=10 we get

N ( r = 10 ) = 317 \displaystyle N(r=10)=\boxed{317}

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