Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /321 of 348

Combinatorics Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Find the answer

How many ways can you remove one tile from a 2014×20142014 \times 2014 grid such that the resulting figure can be tiled by 1×31 \times 3 and 3×13 \times 1 rectangles?

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Number the rows and columns of the grid from 0 to 2013, thereby assigning an ordered pair to each tile. We claim that a tile (i,j)(i, j) may be selected if and only if ij0(mod3)i \equiv j \equiv 0(\bmod 3); call such a square good. First, let us show that this condition is sufficient. Observe that any such square ss is the corner of a canonical 4×44 \times 4 square SS whose vertices are all good. Then the sides of SS partition the board into nine distinct regions. It's easy to see that all of them can be suitably tiled. Now we show that only good squares can be removed. Let ω\omega be a non-real cube root of unity. In the tile with coordinates (i,j)(i, j), place the complex number ωi+j\omega^{i+j}. Note that any 1×31 \times 3 or 3×13 \times 1 rectangle placed on the grid must cover three squares with sum 1+ω+ω2=01+\omega+\omega^{2}=0. Now, note that the sum of the numbers on the whole 2014×20142014 \times 2014 grid, including the removed tile, is k=02013l=02013ωk+l=(k=02013ωk)2\sum_{k=0}^{2013} \sum_{l=0}^{2013} \omega^{k+l}=\left(\sum_{k=0}^{2013} \omega^{k}\right)^{2} which can be simplified to 1 using the identity 1+ω+ω2=01+\omega+\omega^{2}=0. Therefore, it is necessary that i+j0i+j \equiv 0 (mod3)(\bmod 3). By placing the complex number ωij\omega^{i-j} instead of ωi+j\omega^{i+j}, the same calculations show that ij0i-j \equiv 0 (mod3)(\bmod 3) is necessary. This can only occur if ij0(mod3)i \equiv j \equiv 0(\bmod 3). Hence the answer is exactly the set of good squares, of which there are 6722=451584672^{2}=451584.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.