Twenty points with integer coordinates are given in the coordinate plane so that no three of them are collinear. Prove that there exists a triangle with vertices chosen among the given points whose centroid is also a point with integer coordinates.
Problem 1360
Official solution
Let the given points be , with , where are integers.
The centroid of a triangle with vertices , , is
We want to find three points among the such that both and are divisible by .
Consider the residues modulo of the - and -coordinates of each point. Each point can be assigned a pair , where , .
There are possible residue pairs modulo .
By the pigeonhole principle, among points, at least points must have the same residue pair . That is, there exist three points such that and .
Therefore, and , so the centroid has integer coordinates.
It remains to check that these three points are not collinear. But the problem states that no three of the points are collinear, so any three points form a triangle.
Thus, there exists a triangle with vertices among the given points whose centroid is also a point with integer coordinates.