Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /94 of 133

Combinatorics Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Saudi Arabia

We are given a lattice and two pebbles AA and BB that are placed at two lattice points. At each step we are allowed to relocate one of the pebbles to another lattice point with the condition that the distance between pebbles is preserved. Is it possible after finite number of steps to switch positions of the pebbles?

Solution

Solution suggested by the student Mahdi Al-Shaikh Saleh. Consider the lattice Z2\mathbb{Z}^{2} and (xa,ya),(xb,yb)(x_{a}, y_{a}),(x_{b}, y_{b}) the coordinates of positions of pebbles A,BA, B respectively. If we relocate one of the pebbles, say BB, at a new position, (xb,yb)(x_{b}^{\prime}, y_{b}^{\prime}), because (xbxa)2+(ybya)2=(xbxa)2+(ybya)2(x_{b}-x_{a})^{2}+(y_{b}-y_{a})^{2}=(x_{b}^{\prime}-x_{a})^{2}+(y_{b}^{\prime}-y_{a})^{2}, by considering this equality in modulo 44, we deduce that the number of even terms among xbxa,ybyax_{b}-x_{a}, y_{b}-y_{a} is preserved after each relocation. Whenever both terms are even, one can cancel the common 22 by considering a sublattice to end up with two terms with at most one even term. In this way, we can consider two cases:

- If only one term among xbxa,ybyax_{b}-x_{a}, y_{b}-y_{a} is odd, we color the vertices of the lattice in blue and red by alternating the colors between each two consecutive vertices in a horizontal line and two consecutive vertices in a vertical line.

Figure 1

- If both terms xbxa,ybyax_{b}-x_{a}, y_{b}-y_{a} are odd, we color the vertices of the lattice in blue and red by making the colors of all vertices in a same horizontal line the same and alternating the colors between each two consecutive horizontal lines.

Figure 2

In both cases, the colors of the vertex positions of pebbles AA and BB are different, and at each relocation, the colors of their vertex new positions remains unchanged. So, in both cases, it is impossible after finite number of steps to switch positions of the pebbles AA and BB.

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.