P935
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Rolling Square

ℹ️Published on Sunday, 9th March 2025, 01:00 am; Solved by 82

A square of side length $b<1$ is rolling around the inside of a larger square of side length $1$, always touching the larger square but without sliding.
Initially the two squares share a common corner. At each step, the small square rotates clockwise about a corner that touches the large square, until another of its corners touches the large square. Here is an illustration of the first three steps for $b = \frac5{13}$.

0935_rolling.png

For some values of $b$, the small square may return to its initial position after several steps. For example, when $b = \frac12$, this happens in $4$ steps; and for $b = \frac5{13}$ it happens in $24$ steps.

Let $F(N)$ be the number of different values of $b$ for which the small square first returns to its initial position within at most $N$ steps. For example, $F(6) = 4$, with the corresponding $b$ values: 12,22,2+22+42,852+4336, the first three in $4$ steps and the last one in $6$ steps. Note that it does not matter whether the small square returns to its original orientation.
Also $F(100) = 805$.

Find $F(10^8)$.



Soluzione

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