An ant starts at the origin of the coordinate plane. The ant only has enough energy to walk for 10 units along either the x- or y-axis before stopping. These lines are the two ant highways.

However, if it goes off the highway, more energy is needed for the same distance. That is, the further the ant deviates, the greater the energy consumption, as represented by the factor 1+0.4d, where d is the distance to the nearest highway. For example, if the ant is 1 unit away from the nearest highway, it uses 1.4 times the energy on the highway to walk 1 meter.

What is the area of the set of points the ant can reach before getting tired and stopping?

I am thinking that Ant may be able to get further by way of a highway first and then along a ray off-road than my way of single straight line paths. Hmmm.

Posted by Steven Lord on 2018-08-24 23:53:02