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Baltic Way 1995 · Problem 15

Combinatorics

A polygon with 2n+12 n+1 vertices is given. Show that it is possible to label the vertices and midpoints of the sides of the polygon, using all the numbers 1,2,…,4n+21,2, \ldots, 4 n+2, so that the sums of the three numbers assigned to each side are all equal.

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Topics

Colorings and configurations · Pigeonhole and extremal arguments

Solutions

Solution

Solution:

First, label the midpoints of the sides of the polygon with the numbers 1,2,…,2n+11, 2, \ldots, 2n+1, in clockwise order. Then, beginning with the vertex between the sides labelled by 11 and 22, label every second vertex in clockwise order with the numbers 4n+2,4n+1,…,2n+24n+2, 4n+1, \ldots, 2n+2.

Contest context

Results from Baltic Way 1995

9 teams

Mean score
2.2 / 5
Scores of 4 or 5
4 / 9
Estonia
0 / 5

Score distribution

05
10
20
30
40
54
All team scores
TeamScore
Poland5 / 5
Latvia5 / 5
Sweden0 / 5
Lithuania0 / 5
Denmark5 / 5
Finland5 / 5
St. Petersburg0 / 5
Estonia0 / 5
Iceland0 / 5