
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Let  $n$  be a positive integer such that  $1 \leq n \leq 1000$ . Let  $M_n$  be the number of integers in the set  $X_n=\{\sqrt{4 n+1}, \sqrt{4 n+2}, \ldots, \sqrt{4 n+1000}\}$ . Let  $$ a=\max \left\{M_n: 1 \leq n \leq 1000\right\} \text {, and } b=\min \left\{M_n: 1 \leq n \leq 1000\right\} \text {. } $$  Find  $a-b$ .

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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