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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.7 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Czech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match

The city of Mar del Plata has a shape of the square WSENWSEN. For a given even integer nn, it is divided by 2(n+1)2(n + 1) streets into n×nn \times n blocks (the streets run also around the square). Each block has a size of 100 m x 100 m. All the streets in Mar del Plata are one-way. Each street has one direction along the entire length. Every two adjacent parallel streets have opposite directions. The WSWS street is directed from WW to SS and the WNWN street is directed from WW to NN. A street cleaning car starts at WW. Its aim is to arrive to EE and clean the roads it passes through. What is the length of the longest possible route it can pass if no 100 m segment can be passed more than once? (For n=6n = 6, Fig. 1 shows the map of the city and one of the possible, but not the longest, routes of the car.

Solution

First we introduce some notation. Call each 100 m segment of a street an arrow, and each place where two streets meet a crossroad. If an arrow has the same direction as the street WSWS or WNWN (that is, it runs from the upper left to the bottom right or from the bottom left to the upper right), it is called a forward arrow, otherwise it is a back arrow.

In the solution we will use the following obvious lemma: Let the set of all crossroads be split into two sets AA and BB such that WAW \in A and EBE \in B. Then the number of times the car drives along an arrow from AA to BB is one more than the number of times the car drives along an arrow from BB to AA.

Let us split the set of all crossroads of Mar del Plata into two sets AA and BB by a vertical (i.e. north-south) line connecting two points located 100k+50100k + 50 m from WW – one on the WNWN street and one on the WSWS street – for some k{0,1,,n1}k \in \{0, 1, \dots, n-1\}. Fig. 5a and 5b show the splitting line for k=3k = 3 and k=4k = 4 respectively.

Figure 2
Fig. 5a

Figure 3
Fig. 5b

If kk is odd then the line intersects k+1k + 1 forward arrows (going from A\mathcal{A} to B\mathcal{B}) and k+1k + 1 back arrows (going from B\mathcal{B} to A\mathcal{A}). Even if the car would pass all the k+1k + 1 forward arrows, by the lemma, it can pass at most kk back arrows. Hence, at least one of the back arrows remains unpassed.

If k2k \ge 2 is even then the line intersects k+2k + 2 forward arrows and kk back arrows. The two northernmost forward arrows intersected by the line begin in the crossroad which has only one incoming arrow. This crossroad can be passed only once, hence one of the two northernmost forward arrows remains unpassed. The same holds for the two southernmost forward arrows. So we have at most kk forward arrows passed by the car and by the lemma at most k1k - 1 back arrows. Together, we have at least 3 unpassed arrows at this level.

For k=0k = 0, we have only two forward arrows starting in WW intersected by the line. Clearly only one of them could be passed by the car and one remains unpassed.

In a similar way, we split the set of all crossroads by a vertical line connecting two points located 100k+50100k + 50 m from EE – one on the SESE street and one on the NENE street – for some k{0,1,,n1}k \in \{0, 1, \dots, n-1\}. The situation is sketched on Fig. 6a and 6b k=3k = 3 and k=4k = 4 respectively.

Figure 4
Fig. 6a

Figure 5
Fig. 6b

If kk is odd then the line intersects k+1k+1 forward arrows and k+1k+1 back arrows, and at least one of the back arrows remains unpassed.

If k2k \ge 2 is even then the line intersects k+2k+2 forward arrows and kk back arrows. The two northernmost forward arrows end in the crossroad with only one outgoing arrow, hence one of them remains unpassed. The same holds for the two southernmost forward arrows. Again, we have at most kk forward arrows and at most k1k-1 back arrows passed by the car, which results in 3 unpassed arrows at this level.

For k=0k = 0, we have two forward arrows ending in EE, only one of them could be passed by the car and one remains unpassed.

There is one unpassed arrow for any odd kk, three for any even k2k \ge 2, and one for k=0k = 0, and all this happens twice. As nn is even and k{0,1,,n1}k \in \{0, 1, \dots, n-1\}, altogether, we have
2(12n+3(12n1)+1)=4n4 2\left(\frac{1}{2}n + 3\left(\frac{1}{2}n - 1\right) + 1\right) = 4n - 4
unpassed arrows. The total number of arrows is n2(n+1)n \cdot 2(n+1), hence, the car cannot pass more than
n2(n+1)(4n4)=2n22n+4 n \cdot 2(n + 1) - (4n - 4) = 2n^2 - 2n + 4
arrows.

On the other hand, there are many possible routes of the car consisting of 2n22n+42n^2 - 2n + 4 arrows. One is sketched on Fig. 7 for n=6n = 6. When we use the same pattern in general case, the route can be subdivided into 12n\frac{1}{2}n parts by the crossroads lying on the WSWS street located 200k200k m from WW for k=1,2,,12n1k = 1, 2, \dots, \frac{1}{2}n - 1.

Figure 6
Fig. 7

The first 12n1\frac{1}{2}n-1 parts differ only by shifting. Each of them consist of nn arrows of the same direction as WNWN, nn arrows of the opposite direction as WNWN, and 2(n1)2(n-1) arrows perpendicular to WNWN. The last part consists of nn arrows of the same direction as WNWN and 2(n+1)2(n+1) arrows perpendicular to WNWN. Therefore, the number of arrows on the entire route is
(12n1)(2n+2(n1))+n+2(n+1)=2n22n+4. (\frac{1}{2}n - 1)(2n + 2(n - 1)) + n + 2(n + 1) = 2n^2 - 2n + 4.

Answer. The length of the longest possible route of the car is 110(2n22n+4)\frac{1}{10}(2n^2 - 2n + 4) km.

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