Talk:Minimum number of cells after, before, above and below NxN squares

Task description

The task description currently reads: "Find and show on this page the minimum number of cells after, before, above and below N×N squares, where N = 10."

But "cells after, before, above and below" here suggests addition when what we're looking for is the minimum of the four lengths of distances to the edge in each of the up, down, left and right directions.

So I'm wondering if we can't make the task description a little less ambiguous by rephrasing. (But I'm not completely convinced here that my second paragraph, above, is actually any clearer. Does anyone have strong opinions here?) --Rdm (talk) 19:35, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

I don't really feel strongly about it but my interpretation was that each cell should contain "the distance to the nearest edge". Which seemed a lot less convoluted to me. --Thundergnat (talk) 22:06, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

I wonder if "the nearest" edge is well defined ? (There may be 2, or 4, of them).

Perhaps "minimum distance to an edge" (rather than implying a search for a particular edge) ?

(but as you say, not much turns on it) Hout (talk) 08:32, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

"Find and show on this page the minimum of: the number of cells after; before; above; and below an N×N square. where N = 10.". If N is fixed then perhaps NxN should be 10x10, if it is not meant to be fixed then perhaps a procedure to find ... with examples to include even and odd N. Perhaps NxG would be more interesting.--Nigel Galloway (talk) 15:24, 19 January 2023 (UTC)