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Robots dancing randomly: a stage movement probability puzzle

Posted 21 days ago

enter image description here

For options A, B, C, and D, how to draw visual diagrams for all valid path scenarios that meet the conditions? For each distinct case, draw a detailed diagram, and use these visual illustrations to help understand and solve the problem.

(*Find all valid non-negative integer solutions*)sol = 
 FindInstance[{x + y + z + w == 4, x - y == -2, w == z, x >= 0, 
   y >= 0, z >= 0, w >= 0}, {x, y, z, w}, Integers, 10]

(*Calculate number of paths for each solution*)
paths = 4!/(x! y! z! w!) /. sol

(*Total number of valid paths*)
total = Total[paths]

(*Check if option A is correct*)
Print["Is option A correct? ", total == 12]

The above is the computational method I used to verify whether Option A is correct. Now I want to visualize all valid paths for each option using grid diagrams, count the number of paths and calculate the probabilities to determine the correctness of each option. How can I draw such diagrams?

POSTED BY: Bill Blair
4 Replies

Side remark: If x + y + z + w == 4, then you can code 4!/(x! y! z! w!) with the built-in function Multinomial[x, y, z, w].

POSTED BY: Michael Rogers
Posted 16 days ago

Thanks, I learned another built-in function.

POSTED BY: Bill Blair

This is a nice little problem! Here comes an approach for visualization (I changed the names of the step directions to ´{n, s, e, w}´, i.e. {north, south, east, west});

sol = FindInstance[{n + s + e + w == 4, w - e == 2, n == s, {n, s, e, w} >= 0}, {n, s, e, w}, Integers, 10];
stepOrders = Flatten[Permutations@*Flatten /@ Apply[ConstantArray, sol, {2}], 1];
stepRules = {n -> {0, 1}, s -> {0, -1}, e -> {1, 0}, w -> {-1, 0}};
paths = Arrow@*Accumulate@*(Prepend[#, {2, 0}] &) /@ (stepOrders /. stepRules);
graphics = Graphics[{Red, Arrowheads[{{.1, .23}, {.1, .48}, {.1, .73}, {.1, .98}}], #}, Frame -> True, GridLines -> Automatic] & /@ paths;
Multicolumn[graphics]

enter image description here

POSTED BY: Henrik Schachner
Posted 16 days ago

This image generation demonstrates the powerful capabilities of Mathematica. Thank you.

POSTED BY: Bill Blair
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