Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Ukraine

Let quasi-square be a figure that consists of an n×nn \times n-square with one more 1×11 \times 1 square attached along one of its sides, so that the unit square shares a side with one of the unit squares of an n×nn \times n-square as well as shares a vertex with one of the corner squares of the n×nn \times n-square. Thus, the upper two figures on Fig. 3 are quasi-squares, whereas the lower two are not. Determine all possible integer n3n \ge 3 for which a plane can be filled with the identical quasi-squares. Quasi-squares can be rotated and reflected but are not allowed to overlap.

Figure 1
Fig. 3

Solution

Fig. 4 shows an example of filling the plane with quasi-squares in which an extra 1×11 \times 1-square shares a side with an edge square. Fig. 5 shows an example for quasi-squares which have unit square sharing the vertex but not the side with the edge square of an n×nn \times n-square.

Figure 2
Fig. 4

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