junior math team problem

[Petalon]

Can somone help me solve this problem give me any tips on how to solve it. It is for my math team and I have no Ideas or strategies on how to solve it. Thanks

 

[mmm4444bot]

Hello Petalon. Are you allowed to seek outside help with this competition question?

PS: I fixed your image. Please preview future posts. Rotate images when needed. Thanks.

?

 

[pka]

The first move must be up, U, or L, left. Now a valid path is [imath]LLURULLU[/imath]
BUT [imath]ULRULLUUL[/imath] is an invalid path. Can you explain why?

This question is asking for the number of valid paths.

 

[Steven G]

I would think about how many ways you can from corner to corner efficiently. Each path can be done in 6 moves. Now you simple have to add two more moves to make the path inefficient.
In the given path, which moves were inefficient
Play with this idea for a bit.

 

[Petalon]

Hello Petalon. Are you allowed to seek outside help with this competition question?

PS: I fixed your image. Please preview future posts. Rotate images when needed. Thanks.

?

Yeah this is not for the competition these are practice problems.

 

[lookagain]

The first move must be up, U, or L, left. Now a valid path is [imath]LLURULLU[/imath]

... starts at the upper left and goes [to] the lower right ...