Mila stands on an infinitely large board divided into squares and starts moving. An -jump is a movement in which Mila moves one square left, right, up or down and then squares in a direction perpendicular to that. Below is an example where Mila starts in the middle box on the left and first does a -jump, followed by a -jump and then a -jump, -jump and -jump.
Suppose Mila first does a -jump, then a -jump, then a -jump, a -jump, and so on. Finally, she does a -jump. For which positive integers can Mila choose her jumps such that she can get back to her starting square?
Solution
Colour the squares on the board alternately white and black, like on a chess board. If is odd, then an -jump always goes to a square of the same colour as the starting square, and if is even precisely to a square of the other colour. Suppose Mila starts on a white square. If Mila makes a total of jumps and starts on a white square, Mila ends on a white square if is of the form or , where is an integer, and on a black square if is of the form or .
So the only possibilities for Mila to end up on the initial square are for of the form or . In the first case, we see immediately that this is indeed possible from the following claim: for every , Mila can return to her starting square after an -jump, -jump, -jump and -jump. Proof of claim: suppose Mila starts on the square with coordinates . Then Mila can return by first jumping to , then to , then to and finally back to .
For it is not possible to end on the square where Mila started, but
for it can be done by jumping as follows:
Then by pasting the path from the claim for , we see that
it is thus possible for Mila to end on the square she started, for of the
form , as long as .
Together we find that Mila can return to her starting square after jumps
for every of the form or , for (and thus ).