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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.5 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Belarus

The central area of a town has a form of the (2n+1)×m(2n+1) \times m rectangle, which is formed by 1×11 \times 1 tiles. To illuminate the area, one-lamp lampposts are used. The lampposts are placed at the corners of some tiles, including a corner at the lamppost position, and only those.
Find the smallest number of the lampposts required to illuminate the whole area, even if one of the lamps should burn out.
(E. Barabanov, M. Karpuk, A. Voidelevich)

Solution

Answer: 2(n+1)m+122(n + 1) \lfloor \frac{m + 1}{2} \rfloor, where x\lfloor x \rfloor is the greatest integer not exceeding xx.

We paint some tiles of the town square black (if m=2k+1m = 2k + 1 is odd, then see Fig. 1, if m=2km = 2k is even, then see Fig. 2).

It is easy to see that any lamp can illuminate at most one painted tile. By condition, any tile must be illuminated by at least two lamps. It follows that the minimum number of the lampposts is greater than or equal to 2k2k, where ll is the number of painted tiles. If the length of the square is odd, i.e. m=2k+1m = 2k + 1, where k0k \ge 0, then l=(n+1)(k+1)=(n+1)m+12l = (n+1)(k+1) = (n+1) \lfloor \frac{m+1}{2} \rfloor; if m=2km = 2k, then l=(n+1)k=(n+1)m+12l = (n+1)k = (n+1) \lfloor \frac{m+1}{2} \rfloor.

On the other hand, if we place the lampposts as it is shown in the figures (the lampposts are indicated as uncolored circles), then any of the square tiles will be illuminated by two lamps. So, 2l=2(n+1)[m+12]2l = 2(n+1) \left[ \frac{m+1}{2} \right] lampposts are sufficient to illuminate the town square so that the problem condition will hold.

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