AoPS - Problem

Source: Tournament of Towns, Senior A-Level , Fall 2019 p6

Tags: combinatorics, combinatorial geometry, geometry, 3D geometry

parmenides51

18.04.2020 17:42

A cube consisting of $(2N)^3$ unit cubes is pierced by several needles parallel to the edges of the cube (each needle pierces exactly $2N$ unit cubes). Each unit cube is pierced by at least one needle. Let us call any subset of these needles “regular” if there are no two needles in this subset that pierce the same unit cube. a) Prove that there exists a regular subset consisting of $2N^2$ needles such that all of them have either the same direction or two different directions. b) What is the maximum size of a regular subset that does exist for sure? (Nikita Gladkov, Alexandr Zimin)

parmenides51 wrote: A cube consisting of $(2N)^3$ unit cubes is pierced by several needles parallel to the edges of the cube (each needle pierces exactly $2N$ unit cubes). Each unit cube is pierced by at least one needle. Let us call any subset of these needles “regular” if there are no two needles in this subset that pierce the same unit cube. a) Prove that there exists a regular subset consisting of $2N^2$ needles such that all of them have either the same direction or two different directions. b) What is the maximum size of a regular subset that does exist for sure? (Nikita Gladkov, Alexandr Zimin) Fixed the problem.