In how many distinct ways can you color each of the vertices of a tetrahedron either red, blue, or green such that no face has all three vertices the same color? (Two colorings are considered the same if one coloring can be rotated in three dimensions to obtain the other.)
Solution
If only two colors are used, there is only one possible arrangement up to rotation, so this gives 3 possibilities. If all three colors are used, then one is used twice. There are 3 ways to choose the color that is used twice. Say this color is red. Then the red vertices are on a common edge, and the green and blue vertices are on another edge. We see that either choice of arrangement of the green and blue vertices is the same up to rotation. Thus there are 6 possibilities total.
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