Olympiad Maths Prep

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Problem 714

AIME late
Combinatorics Difficulty 5.3 Find the answer

7.5. What is the minimum number of 3-cell corners that need to be painted in a 6×66 \times 6 square so that no more corners can be painted? (Painted corners must not overlap.)

Official solution

Answer: 6.

Solution. Let the cells of a 6×66 \times 6 square be painted in such a way that no more corners can be painted. Then, in each 2×22 \times 2 square, at least 2 cells are painted, otherwise, a corner in this square can still be painted. By dividing the 6×66 \times 6 square into 9 2×22 \times 2 squares, we get that at least 92=189 \cdot 2 = 18 cells are painted. Therefore, at least 6 corners are painted.

Figure 3 shows how to paint 6 corners so that no more corners can be painted.

Comment. It is proven that the number of painted corners is no less than 646-4 points.

An example with 6 painted corners is drawn - 3 points.

!

Figure 3

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.