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Geometry Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Find the answer

A 9×79\times 7 rectangle is tiled with tiles of the two types: L-shaped tiles composed by three unit squares (can be rotated repeatedly with 9090^\circ) and square tiles composed by four unit squares.
Let n0n\ge 0 be the number of the 2×22 \times 2 tiles which can be used in such a tiling. Find all the values of nn.

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

Solution

Consider a 9×79 \times 7 rectangle that needs to be tiled using two types of tiles: L-shaped tiles, which cover three unit squares, and 2×22 \times 2 square tiles, which cover four unit squares. We need to find all possible values of nn, the number of 2×22 \times 2 square tiles used in such a tiling configuration.

### Step 1: Calculate Total Area

The area of the rectangle is:
9×7=63 unit squares. 9 \times 7 = 63 \text{ unit squares}.

### Step 2: Analyze Tile Coverage

- Each L-shaped tile covers 3 unit squares.
- Each 2×22 \times 2 square tile covers 4 unit squares.

Let x x be the number of L-shaped tiles used, and n n the number of 2×22 \times 2 square tiles used. Thus, we have the equation accounting for all unit squares covered:
3x+4n=63. 3x + 4n = 63.

### Step 3: Determine Possible Values for nn

The equation 3x+4n=633x + 4n = 63 must be satisfied with non-negative integer solutions.

First, let's solve 3x+4n=633x + 4n = 63 for valid nn:

1. **For n=0 n = 0 :**
3x=63 3x = 63
x=21 x = 21
Therefore, when n=0 n = 0 , x=21 x = 21 , which is a valid tiling configuration.

2. **For n=1 n = 1 :**
3x+4=63 3x + 4 = 63
3x=59 3x = 59
This does not yield an integer value for x x .

3. **For n=2 n = 2 :**
3x+8=63 3x + 8 = 63
3x=55 3x = 55
Again, this does not yield an integer value for x x .

4. **For n=3 n = 3 :**
3x+12=63 3x + 12 = 63
3x=51 3x = 51
x=17 x = 17
Therefore, when n=3 n = 3 , x=17 x = 17 , which is a valid configuration.

5. **For n4 n \geq 4 :**
The equation 3x+4n=633x + 4n = 63 quickly becomes impossible to satisfy with integer values since each increase by 1 in n n requires 4 more unit squares, but the remaining must still be divisible by 3.

Thus, the values of n n that allow for a perfect tiling of the rectangle are:
0 and 3. \boxed{0 \text{ and } 3}.

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