A grasshopper jumps on the plane from an integer point (point with all integer coordinates) to another integer point according to the following rules: His first jump is of length , his second jump is of length , his next jump is of length , and so on, alternatively. What is the least possible odd number of moves in which the grasshopper could return to his starting point?
, 2010
Solution
Since the only representations of and as sums of two squares are and , we conclude that every odd move of the grasshopper is of the form and every even one - of the form or .
Let the starting point be . We need the grasshopper to get in an even number of moves to some of the points , e.g. to .
After any pair of two consecutive moves the grasshopper gets from the point to the point , where , or , . It means that after any pair of consecutive moves one of the coordinates remains the same modulo , and another changes by modulo . This implies that each coordinate may obtain a value equivalent to modulo , in particular precisely the value , only after at least pairs of moves, e.g. .
To obtain a similar result for another coordinate one needs at least another pairs of moves. Therefore, one needs at least moves to get the point , and totally at least moves to get the initial point .
An example of such moves is the following: all odd moves are as , and even moves consist of six moves as , six moves as , one move and one move .