In how many ways can the set of ordered pairs of integers be colored red and blue such that for all and , the points , and are all the same color?
Solution
Let and be counterclockwise rotations about and , respectively. Then , and . Therefore, the possible colorings are precisely those preserved under these rotations. Since , the colorings must also be preserved under rotations about . Similarly, one can show that they must be preserved under rotations about any point , where is odd and is even. Decompose the lattice points as follows: Within any of these sublattices, any point can be brought to any other through appropriate rotations, but no point can be brought to any point in a different sublattice. It follows that every sublattice must be colored in one color, but that different sublattices can be colored differently. Since each of these sublattices can be colored in one of two colors, there are possible colorings.