Steps on a grid

In your book, Maths Mela (Chapter 2), Jagat and Mini play Treasure Hunt on a grid of 4 rows and 4 columns. Row 1 is the bottom row and column 1 is the left column. You may move up, down, left or right, one square at a time. No slanting (diagonal) steps!

Here is where the things are. The car is in row 4, column 1 (top left). The flower is in row 4, column 4 (top right). The mango is in row 3, column 3. The cat is in row 2, column 2. The orange is in row 1, column 4 (bottom right). START is just outside the grid, to the left of row 1, so your first step to the right takes you into row 1, column 1.

Jagat thinks of one object. Mini takes 4 steps to the right from START and reaches the orange. 'Is it an orange?' 'No, you are 3 steps away.' Then she takes 2 steps to the left and 1 step up, and reaches the cat. 'You are still 2 steps away.' Which object is 3 steps from the orange and 2 steps from the cat? The mango! From the orange: 2 up and 1 left. From the cat: 1 up and 1 right.

We can count steps from START too. The orange takes 4 steps (4 right). The mango takes 5 steps (3 right, then 2 up). So the orange takes fewer steps than the mango. The flower takes 7 steps: 4 right and 3 up, in any order, is the shortest way.