2008 USAMO Problems/Problem 6

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Problem

(Sam Vandervelde) At a certain mathematical conference, every pair of mathematicians are either friends or strangers. At mealtime, every participant eats in one of two large dining rooms. Each mathematician insists upon eating in a room which contains an even number of his or her friends. Prove that the number of ways that the mathematicians may be split between the two rooms is a power of two (i.e., is of the form $2^k$ for some positive integer $k$).

Solution

Solution 1

Solution 2

Alternate solutions are always welcome. If you have a different, elegant solution to this problem, please add it to this page.

Resources

2008 USAMO (ProblemsResources)
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