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Main Author: Táfula, Christian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19589
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author Táfula, Christian
author_facet Táfula, Christian
contents On an infinite chess board, how much faster can the knight reach a square when compared to the king, in average? More generally, for coprime $b>a \in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 1}$ such that $a+b$ is odd, define the $(a,b)$-knight and the king as \begin{equation*} \begin{aligned} \mathrm{N}_{a,b} = \{(a,b), (b,a), (-a,b), (-b,a), (-b,-a), (-a,-b), (a,-b), (b, -a)\},\newline \mathrm{K}=\{(1,0), (1,1), (0,1), (-1,1), (-1,0), (-1,-1), (0,-1), (1,-1)\} \subseteq \mathbb{Z}^2, \end{aligned} \end{equation*} respectively. One way to formulate this question is by asking for the average ratio, for $\mathbf{p}\in \mathbb{Z}^2$ in a box, between $\min\{h\in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 1} ~|~ \mathbf{p}\in h\mathrm{N}\}$ and $\min\{h\in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 1} ~|~ \mathbf{p}\in h\mathrm{K}\}$, where $hA = \{\mathbf{a}_1+\cdots+\mathbf{a}_h ~|~ \mathbf{a}_1,\ldots, \mathbf{a}_h \in A\}$ is the $h$-fold sumset of $A$. We show that this ratio equals $2(a+b)b^2/(a^2+3b^2)$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_19589
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Knights are 24/13 times faster than the king
Táfula, Christian
Combinatorics
11B13, 11B75
On an infinite chess board, how much faster can the knight reach a square when compared to the king, in average? More generally, for coprime $b>a \in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 1}$ such that $a+b$ is odd, define the $(a,b)$-knight and the king as \begin{equation*} \begin{aligned} \mathrm{N}_{a,b} = \{(a,b), (b,a), (-a,b), (-b,a), (-b,-a), (-a,-b), (a,-b), (b, -a)\},\newline \mathrm{K}=\{(1,0), (1,1), (0,1), (-1,1), (-1,0), (-1,-1), (0,-1), (1,-1)\} \subseteq \mathbb{Z}^2, \end{aligned} \end{equation*} respectively. One way to formulate this question is by asking for the average ratio, for $\mathbf{p}\in \mathbb{Z}^2$ in a box, between $\min\{h\in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 1} ~|~ \mathbf{p}\in h\mathrm{N}\}$ and $\min\{h\in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 1} ~|~ \mathbf{p}\in h\mathrm{K}\}$, where $hA = \{\mathbf{a}_1+\cdots+\mathbf{a}_h ~|~ \mathbf{a}_1,\ldots, \mathbf{a}_h \in A\}$ is the $h$-fold sumset of $A$. We show that this ratio equals $2(a+b)b^2/(a^2+3b^2)$.
title Knights are 24/13 times faster than the king
topic Combinatorics
11B13, 11B75
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19589