1998 USAMO Problems/Problem 4
Problem
A computer screen shows a chessboard, colored in the usual way. One can select with a mouse any rectangle with sides on the lines of the chessboard and click the mouse button: as a result, the colors in the selected rectangle switch (black becomes white, white becomes black). Find, with proof, the minimum number of mouse clicks needed to make the chessboard all one color.
Solution
Answer: .
There are adjacent pairs of squares in the border and each pair has one black and one white square. Each move can fix at most pairs, so we need at least moves. However, we start with two corners one color and two another, so at least one rectangle must include a corner square. But such a rectangle can only fix two pairs, so at least moves are needed.
It is easy to see that 98 moves suffice: take 49 rectangles (alternate rows), and 49 rectangles (alternate columns).
credit: https://mks.mff.cuni.cz/kalva/usa/usoln/usol984.html
editor: Brian Joseph
second editor: integralarefun
See Also
1998 USAMO (Problems • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 3 |
Followed by Problem 5 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 | ||
All USAMO Problems and Solutions |
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