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PROJECT EULER · #0777

Lissajous Curves

Statement only · UnsolvedOriginal problem ↗

For coprime positive integers a and b, let Ca,b be the curve defined by: x=cos(at)y=cos(b(tπ10)) where t varies between 0 and 2π.

For example, the images below show C2,5 (left) and C7,4 (right):

Define d(a,b)=(x2+y2), where the sum is over all points (x, y) at which Ca,b crosses itself.

For example, in the case of C2,5 illustrated above, the curve crosses itself at two points: (0.31,0) and (0.81,0), rounding coordinates to two decimal places, yielding d(2,5)=0.75. Some other examples are d(2,3)=4.5, d(7,4)=39.5, d(7,5)=52, and d(10,7)=23.25.

Let s(m)=d(a,b), where this sum is over all pairs of coprime integers a,b with 2am and 2bm.
You are given that s(10)=1602.5 and s(100)=24256505.

Find s(106). Give your answer in scientific notation rounded to 10 significant digits; for example s(100) would be given as 2.425650500e7.

Write-up coming later

The complete problem is available here. An approach, code, and answer will be added later.