We consider an (, ) square divided into unit squares. Determine all the values of for which we can write a real number in each of the unit squares such that the sum of the numbers is a positive number, while the sum of the numbers from the unit squares of any square is a negative number.
Solution
We will prove that the desired numbers are those that are not factors of .
If , then we can tile the square with squares and the total sum should simultaneously be positive and negative, which is impossible.
If , then , where . We fill the unit squares with (to be chosen conveniently later on) in the positions with and with in the other positions. Every square contains exactly one unit square of the form , therefore the sum in every square is . The total sum is . We will choose arbitrarily from the non-empty interval .
Remark: For the case there are many other ways of choosing the numbers from the unit squares. Another choice is to fill all the unit squares of the columns , , with a convenient and the other ones with .
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