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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.0 National Olympiad Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let n>2n > 2 be an integer and let SS be a set of kk points in the plane whose coordinates both lie in {1,2,,n}\{1, 2, \dots, n\}. Find the minimal number of kk for which one can choose four points from SS that are the vertices of a nondegenerate parallelogram.

Solution

If k=2n1k = 2n - 1, we can choose all points with xx-coordinate, yy-coordinate are 11. Then, clearly there is no parallelogram. Thus, any k2n1k \le 2n-1 does not satisfy the condition.

Next, we will prove that k=2nk = 2n satisfies. Indeed, let x1,x2,...,xnx_1, x_2, ..., x_n be the number of points whose xx-coordinate are 1,2,...,n1, 2, ..., n respectively. Clearly
x1+x2++xn=2n. x_1 + x_2 + \dots + x_n = 2n.
Consider the segments formed by connecting 22 points with the same xx-coordinate. If there are xx points, then at least x1x-1 segments with different lengths will be generated (we take the point with the lowest ordinate and connect it to the remaining x1x-1 points). Thus, with 1in1 \le i \le n, among the points with the same xx-coordinate ii, we can choose a set SiS_i with size xi1x_i - 1 consists of segments with different lengths. If in S1,S2,...,SnS_1, S_2, ..., S_n there are two segments have the same length, it is easy to see that the four corresponding vertices will form a parallelogram, satisfying the problem.

Conversely, if there are no segments with the same length, then notice that
S1+S2++Sn=(x11)+(x21)++(xn1)=n, |S_1| + |S_2| + \dots + |S_n| = (x_1 - 1) + (x_2 - 1) + \dots + (x_n - 1) = n,
but the values in these sets are smaller than nn, because their length is the difference between two yy-coordinate, and these coordinates only belong to {1,2,...,n}\{1, 2, ..., n\}.

Obviously this is a contradiction.

Therefore the minimum value to find is kmin=2nk_{min} = 2n.

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