2023 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 20

Revision as of 20:17, 9 November 2023 by Technodoggo (talk | contribs)

Each square in a $3\times3$ grid of squares is colored red, white, blue, or green so that every $2\times2$ square contains one square of each color. One such coloring is shown on the right below. How many different colorings are possible?

Solution 1

We first have $4!=24$ possible ways to fill out the top left square. We then fill out the bottom right tile (let a "tile" denote a $1\times1$ square and "square" refer to $2\times2$). In the bottom right square, we already have one corner filled out (from our initial coloring), and we now have $3$ options left to pick from.

We then look at the right middle tile. It is part of two squares: the top right and top left. Among these squares, $3$ colors have already been used, so we only have one more option for it. Similarly, every other square only has one more option, so we have a total of $3\cdot4!=72$ ways.

~Technodoggo