A bug travels in the coordinate plane, moving only along the lines that are parallel to the $x$-axis or $y$-axis. Let $A = (-3, 2)$ and $B = (3, -2)$. Consider all possible paths of the bug from $A$ to $B$ of length at most $20$. How many points with integer coordinates lie on at least one of these paths?
2026-04-06 12:38:21.1775479101
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How many points with integer coordinates lie on at least one of these paths?
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In fact, this question deals with a discrete equivalent of the interior of an ellipse
$$E_k \ = \ \{X \ | \ d(X,A)+d(X,B) \le k \}$$
with focii $A$ and $B$ for the so-called $1$-norm distance:
$$d(A,B)=|x_A-x_B|+|y_A-y_B|$$
(in the framework of discrete issues, one find expression "taxi-distance" or "Manhattan distance"):
Here is a plot of the boundaries of different such ellipses for increasing values of $k$ with an alternation of blue and red colors :
Here is the Matlab program with which I have obtained the above figure:
dm=@(a,b,x,y)(abs(a-x)+abs(b-y)); % Manhattan distance Ax=-3;Ay=2;Bx=3;By=-2; ù foci for X=-10:10 for Y=-10:10; c=dm(X,Y,Ax,Ay)+dm(X,Y,Bx,By); col='r'; if mod(c/2,2)==1 col='b'; end; if (X==Ax && Y==Ay)||(X==Bx && Y==By) col='g'; % foci colored green end; plot(X,Y,'o','color',col,'MarkerEdgeColor',col,... 'MarkerFaceColor',col,'MarkerSize',10); end; end

All coordinates on or within the outer border of points shown below, could be reached. I make it $195$ coordinates.