Problem

Source: Greek 2nd TST 2013-pr4

Tags: trapezoid, combinatorics, Tiling



Let $n$ be a positive integer. An equilateral triangle with side $n$ will be denoted by $T_n$ and is divided in $n^2$ unit equilateral triangles with sides parallel to the initial, forming a grid. We will call "trapezoid" the trapezoid which is formed by three equilateral triangles (one base is equal to one and the other is equal to two). Let also $m$ be a positive integer with $m<n$ and suppose that $T_n$ and $T_m$ can be tiled with "trapezoids". Prove that, if from $T_n$ we remove a $T_m$ with the same orientation, then the rest can be tiled with "trapezoids".