Take a standard 8x8 chessboard, number the black squares 1 and the white squares 0. How many palindromes does this board contain in 'word-search' fashion?

Now generalize and find a formula for any n*n board.

Notes: A palindrome and its reversal should not be counted twice. A palindrome must be at least two digits long and leading zeroes are not allowed. Numbers can be read in any single vertical, horizontal or diagonal direction.

(In reply to Some numbers by e.g.)

Maybe I understood it incorrectly, but by one of the rules Jer defined in this challenge, palindromes containing leading zeroes do not count. Therefore, each line (horizontal or vertical) should contain only six palindromes, as well as all white diagonales would be disqualified (since they all would pose zeroes if white equals the value of zero).

Is this reasoning correct or am I assuming too much?

Posted by Phil_Osopher on 2006-06-10 17:29:14