Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2024

Combinatorics Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it United States

Problem:
Each lattice point with nonnegative coordinates is labeled with a nonnegative integer in such a way that the point (0,0)(0,0) is labeled by 00, and for every x,y0x, y \geq 0, the set of numbers labeled on the points (x,y)(x, y), (x,y+1)(x, y+1), and (x+1,y)(x+1, y) is {n,n+1,n+2}\{n, n+1, n+2\} for some nonnegative integer nn. Determine, with proof, all possible labels for the point (2000,2024)(2000,2024).

Solution

Solution:
We claim the answer is all multiples of 33 from 00 to 2000+22024=60482000+2 \cdot 2024 = 6048.

First, we prove no other values are possible. Let (x,y)\ell(x, y) denote the label of cell (x,y)(x, y).

## The label is divisible by 3.

Observe that for any xx and yy, (x,y)\ell(x, y), (x,y+1)\ell(x, y+1), and (x+1,y)\ell(x+1, y) are all distinct mod 33. Thus, for any aa and bb, (a+1,b+1)\ell(a+1, b+1) cannot match (a+1,b)\ell(a+1, b) or (a,b+1)mod3\ell(a, b+1) \bmod 3, so it must be equivalent to (a,b)\ell(a, b) modulo 33.

Since (a,b+1)\ell(a, b+1), (a,b+2)\ell(a, b+2), (a+1,b+1)\ell(a+1, b+1) are all distinct mod3\bmod 3, and (a+1,b+1)\ell(a+1, b+1) and (a,b)\ell(a, b) are equivalent mod 33, then (a,b)\ell(a, b), (a,b+1)\ell(a, b+1), (a,b+2)\ell(a, b+2) are all distinct mod3\bmod 3, and thus similarly (a,b+1)\ell(a, b+1), (a,b+2)\ell(a, b+2), (a,b+3)\ell(a, b+3) are all distinct mod 33, which means that (a,b+3)\ell(a, b+3) must be neither (a,b+1)\ell(a, b+1) or (a,b+2)mod3\ell(a, b+2) \bmod 3, and thus must be equal to (a,b)mod3\ell(a, b) \bmod 3.

Figure 1

These together imply that
(w,x)(y,z)mod3wxyzmod3 \ell(w, x) \equiv \ell(y, z) \bmod 3 \Longleftrightarrow w-x \equiv y-z \bmod 3
It follows that (2000,2024)\ell(2000,2024) must be equivalent to (0,0)mod3\ell(0,0) \bmod 3, which is a multiple of 33.

## The label is at most 6048.

Note that since (x+1,y)\ell(x+1, y), (x,y+1)\ell(x, y+1), and (x,y)\ell(x, y) are 33 consecutive numbers, (x+1,y)(x,y)\ell(x+1, y)-\ell(x, y) and (x,y+1)(x,y)\ell(x, y+1)-\ell(x, y) are both 2\leq 2. Moreover, since (x+1,y+1)(x,y)+4\ell(x+1, y+1) \leq \ell(x, y)+4, since it is also the same mod 33, it must be at most (x,y)+3\ell(x, y)+3. Thus, (2000,2000)(0,0)+32000\ell(2000,2000) \leq \ell(0,0)+3 \cdot 2000, and (2000,2024)(2000,2000)+224\ell(2000,2024) \leq \ell(2000,2000)+2 \cdot 24, so (2000,2024)6048\ell(2000,2024) \leq 6048.

## Construction.

Consider lines n\ell_{n} of the form x+2y=nx+2y=n (so (2000,2024)(2000,2024) lies on 6048\ell_{6048}). Then any three points of the form (x,y)(x, y), (x,y+1)(x, y+1), and (x+1,y)(x+1, y) lie on three consecutive lines n\ell_{n}, n+1\ell_{n+1}, n+2\ell_{n+2} in some order. Thus, for any kk which is a multiple of 33, if we label every point on line i\ell_{i} with max(imod3,ik)\max(i \bmod 3, i-k), any three consecutive lines n\ell_{n}, n+1\ell_{n+1}, n+2\ell_{n+2} will either be labelled 0,1,20,1,2 in some order, or nk,nk+1,nk+2n-k, n-k+1, n-k+2, both of which consist of three consecutive numbers. Below is an example with k=6k=6.

Figure 2

89101112131415
678910111213
4567891011
23456789
01234567
12012345
20120123
01201201

Any such labelling is valid, and letting kk range from 00 to 60486048, we see (2000,2024)(2000,2024) can take any label of the form 6048k6048-k, which spans all such multiples of 33.

Hence the possible labels are precisely the multiples of 33 from 00 to 60486048.

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