Problem:
The points of the plane are colored in black and white so that whenever three vertices of a parallelogram are the same color, the fourth vertex is that color, too. Prove that all the points of the plane are the same color.
Problem:
The points of the plane are colored in black and white so that whenever three vertices of a parallelogram are the same color, the fourth vertex is that color, too. Prove that all the points of the plane are the same color.
Solution:
Suppose not. Let be a white point and a black point. Their midpoint is one of the two colors; without loss of generality suppose is black. Now pick any point not collinear with , and construct so that is a parallelogram. If are both white, then has three white vertices and one black vertex, impossible; if they are both black, then has three black vertices and one white vertex, impossible. So and are opposite colors.
But is also a parallelogram, since and lines are parallel. However, it has three black vertices and one white vertex. Thus we have a contradiction.