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Turkey — Team Selection Test

Combinatorics Difficulty 8.8 Shortlist Prove it Turkey

There are some number of green crawlers in the lowest leftmost unit square and some number of brown crawlers in the highest leftmost unit square of the grid 2014×20142014 \times 2014. Each green crawler at each move can pass to the neighboring square located at its up or at its right. Each brown crawler at each move can pass to the neighboring square located at its down or at its right. It turns out that after some number of moves each unit square was visited by at least one crawler. Find the minimal possible number of crawlers.

Solution

The answer is 13431343. We denote the lowest leftmost, the highest leftmost, the highest rightmost and the lowest rightmost unit squares by AA, BB, CC, DD, respectively. Example: Let us 672672 green crawlers to AA and 671671 brown crawlers to BB. One green crawler from AA makes 20132013 up moves and after that makes 20132013 right moves and visits all unit squares of the leftmost column and the highest row. All green crawlers start by making one up and one right move, all brown crawlers start by making one down and one right move. Thus, it is sufficient to give an example when 671671 green and 671671 brown crawlers visit all unit squares of 2013×20132013 \times 2013 grid. Let us label crawlers by g1,…,g671g_1, \dots, g_{671} and b1,…,b671b_1, \dots, b_{671}. Each gig_i, i=1,…,671i = 1, \dots, 671 makes i−1i-1 right moves, after that 2⋅671−i2 \cdot 671 - i up moves, after that 2⋅6712 \cdot 671 right moves and finally 671+i−1671 + i - 1 up moves. Each bib_i, i=1,…,671i = 1, \dots, 671 makes i−1i-1 down moves, after that 2⋅671−i2 \cdot 671 - i right moves, after that 2⋅6712 \cdot 671 down moves and finally 671+i−1671 + i - 1 right moves. It can be readily seen that all unit squares are visited at least once by some crawler.

Now we show that the total number of crawlers is at least 2n3\frac{2n}{3} for a grid n×nn \times n. Suppose that there are aa green and bb brown crawlers. Let us define diagonals T1,T2,…,TnT_1, T_2, \dots, T_n that are parallel to the main diagonal connecting BB and DD so that T1T_1 consists of only one unit square AA, T2T_2 consists of two unit squares neighboring AA, ..., TnT_n consists of nn unit squares of the main diagonal BDBD, …\dots, T2n−1T_{2n-1} consists of only one unit square CC. Similarly let us define diagonals S1,S2,…,SnS_1, S_2, \dots, S_n that are parallel to the main diagonal connecting AA and CC so that S1S_1 consists of only one unit square BB, S2S_2 consists of two unit squares neighboring BB, ..., SnS_n consists of nn unit squares of the main diagonal ACAC, …\dots, S2n−1S_{2n-1} consists of only one unit square DD. Obviously we can assume that each green crawler ends its trip at CC and each brown crawler ends its trip at DD. Each gig_i will visit exactly one unit square of each diagonal TiT_i. Then green crawlers will visit 11 square in T1T_1, at most 22 squares in T2T_2, ..., at most a−1a-1 squares in Ta−1T_{a-1}, at most aa squares in each of the diagonals Ta,Ta+1,…,T2n−a−1,T2n−aT_a, T_{a+1}, \dots, T_{2n-a-1}, T_{2n-a}, at most a−1a-1 squares in T2n−a+1,…T_{2n-a+1}, \dots, at most 22 squares in T2n−2T_{2n-2}, 11 square in T2n−1T_{2n-1}. Then green squares had visited at most 1+2+⋯+(a−1)+a(2n−1−2(a−1))+(a−1)+⋯+2+1=2an−a21+2+\dots+(a-1)+a(2n-1-2(a-1))+(a-1)+\dots+2+1=2an-a^2. Similarly, bb brown crawlers also had visited at most 2bn−b22bn-b^2 unit squares. The trajectories of two distinctly colored crawlers will intersect in exactly one square. Therefore, the crawlers in total will visit at most 2an−a2+2bn−b2−ab2an-a^2+2bn-b^2-ab squares which should be not less than n2n^2: n(2a+2b)≥n2+(a2+ab+b2)≥n2+34(a+b)2n(2a+2b) \ge n^2+(a^2+ab+b^2) \ge n^2+\frac{3}{4}(a+b)^2. Put a+b=xa+b=x: 2nx≥n2+34x22nx \ge n^2+\frac{3}{4}x^2 or (3x−2n)(2n−x)≥0(3x-2n)(2n-x) \ge 0. Readily x≤2nx \le 2n since nn green or and nn brown crawlers can easily visit all squares. Finally we get a+b≥2n3a+b \ge \frac{2n}{3}. Thus, a+b≥1343a+b \ge 1343. Done.

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