We construct a bijection between possible combinations in Oddland and possible combinations in Squareland. Suppose we have a combination of Squareland stamps that sum to n cent, consisting of a1 stamps of value 1 cent, a2 stamps of value 4 cent, ..., aM stamps of value M2 cent, so that
n=k=1∑Mk2ak.
Now we express k2 as ∑j=1k(2j−1) and interchange the order of summation, which yields
n=k=1∑Mj=1∑k(2j−1)ak=j=1∑M(2j−1)k=j∑Mak.
This gives us a possible combination of Oddland stamps: By setting bj=∑k=jMak, we have
n=j=1∑M(2j−1)bj.
This can be interpreted as a collection of b1 stamps of value 1 cent, b2 stamps of value 3 cent, ..., bM stamps of value (2M−1) cent. We have b1≥b2≥⋯≥bM by definition, so this is a legal combination in Oddland.
Conversely, if a combination in Oddland is given by the values b1,b2,…,bM, we can use the identities a1=b1−b2,a2=b2−b3,…,aM−1=bM−1−bM,aM=bM to recover the corresponding combination in Squareland. (Note that these values are nonnegative whenever b1≥b2≥⋯≥bM.)
Since these two operations obviously are inverse to one another, we have found a bijection, which proves the statement.