Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

Let kk be an integer such that kak \mid a and kbk \mid b. Prove that if an m×nm \times n rectangle is (a,b)(a, b)-tileable, then 2km2k \mid m or 2kn2k \mid n.

Solution

Solution:

We prove the following lemma.

Lemma. Let kk be a positive integer such that kak \mid a and kbk \mid b. Then an m×nm \times n rectangle is (a,b)(a, b)-tileable if and only if an m×nm' \times n' rectangle is (ak,bk)\left(\frac{a}{k}, \frac{b}{k}\right)-tileable for mkmmk\left\lfloor\frac{m}{k}\right\rfloor \leq m' \leq \left\lceil\frac{m}{k}\right\rceil and nknnk\left\lfloor\frac{n}{k}\right\rfloor \leq n' \leq \left\lceil\frac{n}{k}\right\rceil. (Here, x\lfloor x\rfloor denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to xx, while x\lceil x\rceil denotes the least integer greater than or equal to xx.)

Proof. Number the rows and columns in order. For each pair 0i,j<k0 \leq i, j < k, consider the set of squares in a row congruent to ii modulo kk and in a column congruent to jj modulo kk. If one square of a type (a,b)(a, b) domino lies in this set, then so does the other. We can therefore partition the rectangle into these sets and then tile these sets instead. Each such set is a rectangular array of dimensions m×nm' \times n', with mkmmk\left\lfloor\frac{m}{k}\right\rfloor \leq m' \leq \left\lceil\frac{m}{k}\right\rceil and nknnk\left\lfloor\frac{n}{k}\right\rfloor \leq n' \leq \left\lceil\frac{n}{k}\right\rceil, and a type (a,b)(a, b) domino on the original rectangle is a type (ak,bk)\left(\frac{a}{k}, \frac{b}{k}\right) domino on this new array. Since all possible pairs (m,n)(m', n') occur, the result follows.

Suppose 2km2k \nmid m and 2kn2k \nmid n. Then at least one of mk\left\lfloor\frac{m}{k}\right\rfloor and mk\left\lceil\frac{m}{k}\right\rceil is odd, so we can choose mm' odd. Likewise we can choose nn' odd. But then an m×nm' \times n' rectangle has odd area and so cannot be tileable, implying that the m×nm \times n rectangle is not tileable.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.