Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it Estonia

Find the minimum number of colours required to paint all points with integer coordinates in the plane in such a way that no two points which are exactly five units apart have the same color.

Solution

Obviously at least 2 colors are necessary. Color all points (x,y)(x, y) with even sum of coordinates with one color and all other points with another color. All points that are at distance 5 from (x,y)(x, y) are (x±4,y±3)(x \pm 4, y \pm 3), (x±3,y±4)(x \pm 3, y \pm 4), (x±5,y)(x \pm 5, y), (x,y±5)(x, y \pm 5). In each case, the sum of coordinates has the parity different from that of (x,y)(x, y). Therefore they are colored differently from (x,y)(x, y).

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