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Combinatorics Difficulty 8.8 Shortlist Prove it Estonia

Let kk be a positive integer. Find all positive integers nn, such that it is possible to mark nn points on the sides of a triangle (different from its vertices) and connect some of them with a line in such a way that the following conditions are satisfied:

1) there is at least 1 marked point on each side;

2) for each pair of points XX and YY marked on different sides, on the third side there exist exactly kk marked points which are connected to both XX and YY and exactly kk points which are connected to neither XX nor YY.

*Answer:* 12k12k.

Solution

Let AA, BB, and CC be the sets of the points on different sides and aa, bb and cc their cardinalities respectively. Let us count all the triplets (p,q,r)(p, q, r), where pAp \in A, qBq \in B, and rCr \in C and they are either pairwise connected or pairwise not connected. For all pAp \in A, qBq \in B there exist exactly kk points rCr \in C, for which the condition holds: if pp and qq are connected, then choose the kk points which are connected to both; if pp and qq are not connected, then pick the kk points which are connected to neither of them. Therefore the total number of such triplets is kabkab. Similarly, for all qBq \in B, rCr \in C we find that the total number of those triplets is kbckbc, and for all rCr \in C, pAp \in A we find that the number of those triplets is kcakca. Therefore, ab=bc=caab = bc = ca, implying a=b=c=n3a = b = c = \frac{n}{3}.

Let us now count all the other triplets (p,q,r)(p,q,r) in which pAp \in A, qBq \in B and rCr \in C. Similarly to the previous paragraph, we can see that for all pAp \in A, qBq \in B there exist exactly kk points rCr \in C for which rr is connected to neither of those if pp and qq are connected to each other, and rr is connected to both if pp and qq are not connected to each other. The number of such triplets (p,q,r)(p,q,r) is kab=k(n3)2kab = k\left(\frac{n}{3}\right)^2. Similarly, we then count the triplets (p,q,r)(p,q,r) in which pp is connected to neither of qq or rr if qq and rr are connected to each other and pp is connected to both qq and rr if qq and rr are not connected to each other. The number of such points is also k(n3)2k\left(\frac{n}{3}\right)^2. Finally, we count the triplets (p,q,r)(p,q,r) in which qq is connected to neither of rr and pp if rr and pp are connected to each other and qq is connected to both rr and pp if rr and pp are not connected. The number of those triplets is also k(n3)2k\left(\frac{n}{3}\right)^2. We have now counted all the possible triplets. Therefore, the total number of triplets (p,q,r)(p,q,r) (pAp \in A, qBq \in B and rCr \in C) is 4k(n3)24k\left(\frac{n}{3}\right)^2. On the other hand, the number of triplets is (n3)3\left(\frac{n}{3}\right)^3. The equality 4k(n3)2=(n3)34k\left(\frac{n}{3}\right)^2 = \left(\frac{n}{3}\right)^3 gives us n=12kn = 12k.

It remains to prove that it is possible to mark 4k4k points on each side to satisfy the conditions. Let us first look the case k=1k=1. Let the sides of triangle be labelled as 00, 11, and 22 with each of the sides containing points labelled as 00, 11, 22, and 33. For all i=0,1,2i=0, 1, 2 we connect the even numbered points on the side ii with points 00 and 11 on the side (i+1)mod3(i+1) \bmod 3 and the odd numbered points on the side ii with points 22 and 33 on the side (i+1)mod3(i+1) \bmod 3.

Figure 1

Then we have for each pair of points (which are not on the same side) exactly one point of the third side which are connected to both and exactly one point which is connected to neither of them. For case k>1k > 1 we substitute each point with kk different points and connect those which were generated from points that were connected before.

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