2006 Romanian NMO Problems/Grade 7/Problem 2

Revision as of 02:46, 18 March 2009 by Brut3Forc3 (talk | contribs) (Solution)

Problem

A square of side $n$ is formed from $n^2$ unit squares, each colored in red, yellow or green. Find minimal $n$, such that for each coloring, there exists a line and a column with at least 3 unit squares of the same color (on the same line or column).

Solution

For $nleq6$, consider this coloring for a 6x6 board:

RYGRYG GRYGRY YGRYGR RYGRYG GRYGRY YGRYGR

We can take the top $n$-by-$n$ grid of this board as a coloring not satisfying the conditions. For $n\geq7$, we note that each row or column must have at least one color with 3 or more squares by the pigeonhole principle, so our answer is 7.

See also