A274923 List of y-coordinates of point moving in counterclockwise square spiral.

0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, -1, -1, -1, -1, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2, -3, -3, -3, -3, -3, -3, -3, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -4, -4, -4, -4, -4, -4, -4, -4, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0

Offset: 1

Author

N. J. A. Sloane, Jul 11 2016

Keywords

• sign
• easy

Comments

This spiral, in either direction, is sometimes called the "Ulam spiral, but "square spiral" is a better name. (Ulam looked at the positions of the primes, but of course the spiral itself must be much older.) - N. J. A. Sloane, Jul 17 2018

Graham, Knuth and Patashnik give an exercise and answer on mapping n to square spiral x,y coordinates, and back x,y to n. They start 0 at the origin and first segment North so a(n) is their -x(n-1). In their table of sides, it can be convenient to take n-4*k^2 so the ranges split at -m, 0, m. - Kevin Ryde, Sep 17 2019

References

• Ronald L. Graham, Donald E. Knuth, Oren Patashnik, Concrete Mathematics, Addison-Wesley, 1989, chapter 3, Integer Functions, exercise 40 page 99 and answer page 498.

Links

• Alois P. Heinz, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10000
• Visualization of spiral using Plot 2. - _Hugo Pfoertner_, May 29 2018
• Index entries for sequences related to coordinates of 2D curves

Crossrefs

Cf. A268038 (negated), A317186 (indices of 0's).

Cf. A174344 (x-coordinates).

The (x,y) coordinates for a point sweeping a quadrant by antidiagonals are (A025581, A002262). - N. J. A. Sloane, Jul 17 2018

A296030 gives pairs (x = A174344(n), y = a(n)). - M. F. Hasler, Oct 20 2019

The diagonal rays of the square spiral (coordinates (+-n,+-n)) are: A002939 (2n(2n-1): 0, 2, 12, 30, ...), A016742 = (4n^2: 0, 4, 16, 36, ...), A002943 (2n(2n+1): 0, 6, 20, 42, ...), A033996 = (4n(n+1): 0, 8, 24, 48, ...). - M. F. Hasler, Oct 31 2019

Programs

Maple

fy:=proc(n) option remember; local k; if n=1 then 0 else
k:=floor(sqrt(4*(n-2)+1)) mod 4;
fy(n-1) - cos(k*Pi/2); fi; end;
[seq(fy(n),n=1..120)]; # Based on Seppo Mustonen's formula in A174344.

Mathematica

a[n_] := a[n] = If[n == 0, 0, a[n-1] - Cos[Mod[Floor[Sqrt[4*(n-1)+1]], 4]* Pi/2]];
Table[a[n], {n, 0, 100}] (* Jean-François Alcover, Jun 11 2018, after Seppo Mustonen *)

PARI

L=1;d=1;
for(r=1,9,d=-d;k=floor(r/2)*d;for(j=1,L++,print1(k,", "));forstep(j=k-d,-floor((r+1)/2)*d+d,-d,print1(j,", "))) \\ Hugo Pfoertner, Jul 28 2018

PARI

a(n) = n--; my(m=sqrtint(n), k=ceil(m/2)); n -= 4*k^2; if(n<0, if(n<-m, 3*k+n, k), if(nKevin Ryde, Sep 17 2019

PARI

apply( A274923(n)={my(m=sqrtint(n-=1), k=m\/2); if(m <= n -= 4*k^2, -k, n >= 0, k-n, n >= -m, k, 3*k+n)}, [1..99]) \\ M. F. Hasler, Oct 20 2019

Python

# Based on Kevin Ryde's PARI script
import math
def A274923(n):
    n -= 1
    m = math.isqrt(n)
    k = math.ceil(m/2)
    n -= 4*k*k
    if n < 0: return 3*k+n if n < -m else k
    return k-n if n < m else -k # David Radcliffe, Aug 04 2025