Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /124 of 155

Combinatorics Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it Saudi Arabia

A lock has 16 keys arranged in a 4×44 \times 4 array, each key oriented either horizontally or vertically. In order to open it, all the keys must be vertically oriented. When a key is switched to another position, all the other keys in the same row and column automatically switch their positions too. Show that no matter what the starting positions are, it is always possible to open this lock. (Only one key at a time can be switched.)

Solution

The problem is solved if there is a way to change the orientation of any specified single key, without changing any of the others. This is equivalent to finding a way to switch the chosen key an odd number of times, while switching all other keys an even number of times.
This can be done by switching all keys on the same row and column of the chosen key (including the chosen key). To see why, choose a key KK. If we switch it and all of its sisters that share the same row and column, KK will be switched 7 times. Now, examine the other 15 keys in the lock. There are two cases: either the key is a sister of KK, or not.
Suppose that LL is a sister of KK, say, sharing a row with KK. Then LL will be switched 4 times. For the other case, suppose MM is not a sister of KK.
Then MM will be switched twice, because among the 6 sisters of KK which are turned, exactly two of them share a row or column with MM. Consequently, of all the keys in the lock, only KK is switched an odd number of times.
All other keys are switched either 2 or 4 times, leaving their orientation unchanged. Thus we will be able to open the lock by selecting each horizontal key one-by-one, and turning it and all of its sister keys. \square

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.