Your mind will explode #1

The diagram above shows a 4 × 4 4\times4 rectangular array of points, each of which is 1 1 unit away from its nearest neighbors.

Define a growing path to be a sequence of distinct points of the array with the property that the distance between consecutive points of the sequence is strictly increasing. Let m m be the maximum possible number of points in a growing path, and let r r be the number of growing paths consisting of exactly m m points. Find m r mr .


The answer is 240.

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1 solution

Johanz Piedad
Sep 20, 2015

We label our points using coordinates 0 x , y 3 0 \le x,y \le 3 , with the bottom-left point being ( 0 , 0 ) (0,0) . By the Pythagorean Theorem, the distance between two points is d x 2 + d y 2 \sqrt{d_x^2 + d_y^2} where 0 d x , d y 3 0 \le d_x, d_y \le 3 ; these yield the possible distances (in decreasing order) 18 , 13 , 10 , 9 , 8 , 5 , 4 , 2 , 1 \sqrt{18},\ \sqrt{13},\ \sqrt{10},\ \sqrt{9},\ \sqrt{8},\ \sqrt{5},\ \sqrt{4},\ \sqrt{2},\ \sqrt{1} As these define 9 9 lengths, so the maximum value of m m is 10 10 . For now, we assume that m = 10 m = 10 is achievable. Because it is difficult to immediately impose restrictions on a path with increasing distances, we consider the paths in shrinking fashion. Note that the shrinking paths and growing paths are equivalent, but there are restrictions upon the locations of the first edges of the former.

The 18 \sqrt{18} length is only possible for one of the long diagonals, so our path must start with one of the 4 4 corners of the grid. Without loss of generality (since the grid is rotationally symmetric), we let the vertex be ( 0 , 0 ) (0,0) and the endpoint be ( 3 , 3 ) (3,3) .

The 13 \sqrt{13} length can now only go to 2 2 points; due to reflectional symmetry about the main diagonal, we may WLOG let the next endpoint be ( 1 , 0 ) (1,0) .

From ( 1 , 0 ) (1,0) , there are two possible ways to move 10 \sqrt{10} away, either to ( 0 , 3 ) (0,3) or ( 2 , 3 ) (2,3) . However, from ( 0 , 3 ) (0,3) , there is no way to move 9 \sqrt{9} away, so we discard it as a possibility.

From ( 2 , 3 ) (2,3) , the lengths of 8 , 5 , 4 , 2 \sqrt{8},\ \sqrt{5},\ \sqrt{4},\ \sqrt{2} fortunately are all determined, with the endpoint sequence being ( 2 , 3 ) ( 2 , 0 ) ( 0 , 2 ) ( 2 , 1 ) ( 0 , 1 ) ( 1 , 2 ) (2,3)-(2,0)-(0,2)-(2,1)-(0,1)-(1,2) .

From ( 1 , 2 ) (1,2) , there are 3 3 possible lengths of 1 \sqrt{1} (to either ( 1 , 1 ) , ( 2 , 2 ) , ( 1 , 3 ) (1,1),(2,2),(1,3) ). Thus, the number of paths is r = 4 2 3 = 24 r = 4 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 = 24 , and the answer is m r = 10 24 = 240 mr = 10 \cdot 24 = \boxed{240} .

Maybe you should make a remark in the question that you can go through points without them being counted as points visited.

Ronald Overwater - 5 years, 8 months ago

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The problem says that the path is a sequence of points . Nowhere in the problem says that the path consists of line segments (which may "cross" over other points).

Ivan Koswara - 5 years, 8 months ago

I agree with you

Vadarai Ingram - 3 years ago

2008 AIME II Problem 10 http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/2008 AIME II Problems/Problem 10

Alan Yan - 5 years, 8 months ago

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