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An English Problem

Source: 2017 AMC 12A #22

February 8, 2017
AMCAMC 12AMC 12 Aprobabilitynumber theory2017 AMC 12Aanalytic geometry

Problem Statement

A square is drawn in the Cartesian coordinate plane with vertices at (2,2)(2,2), (2,2)(-2,2), (2,2)(-2,-2), and (2,2)(2,-2). A particle starts at (0,0)(0,0). Every second it moves with equal probability to one of the eight lattice points (points with integer coordinates) closest to its current position, independently of its previous moves. In other words, the probability is 18\frac{1}{8} that the particle will move from (x,y)(x,y) to each of (x,y+1)(x,y+1), (x+1,y+1)(x+1,y+1), (x+1,y)(x+1,y), (x+1,y1)(x+1,y-1), (x,y1)(x,y-1), (x1,y1)(x-1,y-1), (x1,y)(x-1,y), (x1,y+1)(x-1,y+1). The particle will eventually hit the square for the first time, either at one of the 44 corners of the square or one of the 1212 lattice points in the interior of one of the sides of the square. The probability that it will hit at a corner rather than at an interior point of a side is mn\frac{m}{n}, where mm and nn are relatively prime positive integers. What is m+nm+n?
<spanclass=latexbold>(A)</span> 4<spanclass=latexbold>(B)</span> 5<spanclass=latexbold>(C)</span> 7<spanclass=latexbold>(D)</span> 15<spanclass=latexbold>(E)</span> 39<span class='latex-bold'>(A)</span>\ 4\qquad<span class='latex-bold'>(B)</span>\ 5\qquad<span class='latex-bold'>(C)</span>\ 7\qquad<span class='latex-bold'>(D)</span>\ 15\qquad<span class='latex-bold'>(E)</span>\ 39