Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Ibero-American Mathematical Olympiad

Problem:

The number 11 or the number 1-1 is assigned to each vertex of a cube. Then each face is given the product of its four vertices. What are the possible totals for the resulting 1414 numbers?

Solution

Solution:

If every vertex is 11, we get 1414 and that is clearly the highest possible total. The lowest possible total cannot be lower than 14-14, but we cannot even achieve that because if all the vertices are 1-1, then all the faces are 11.

If we change a vertex, then we also change three faces. If the vertex and the three faces are all initially the same, then we make a change of ±8\pm 8. If three are of one kind and one the opposite, then we make a change of ±4\pm 4. If two are of one kind and two the opposite, then we make no change. Thus any sequence of changes must take us to 14+4n14 + 4n for some integer nn. But we have already shown that the total is greater than 14-14 and at most 1414, so the only possibilities are 10,6,2,2,6,10-10, -6, -2, 2, 6, 10 and 1414.

We show that 1010 is not possible. If more than 22 vertices are 1-1, then the vertex total is at most 22, there are only 66 faces, so the total is less than 1010. If all vertices are 11, then the total is 1414. If all but one vertex is 11, then the total is 66. So the only possibility for 1010 is just two vertices 1-1. But however we choose any two vertices, there is always a face containing only one of them, so at least one face is 1-1, so the face total is at most 44 and the vertex total is 44, so the total is less than 1010. The other totals are possible, for example:

1414: all vertices 11

66: one vertex 1-1, rest 11

22: three vertices of one face 1-1, rest 11

2-2: all vertices 1-1

6-6: all vertices but one 1-1

10-10: two opposite corners 11, rest 1-1

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