Problem

Source: 2021 Dürer Math Competition Regional E2 https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c2773609_2021_

Tags: combinatorics



The best part of grandma’s $18$ cm $\times 36$ cm rectangle-shaped cake is the chocolate covering on the edges. Her three grandchildren would like to split the cake between each other so that everyone gets the same amount (of the area) of the cake, and they all get the same amount of the delicious perimeter too. a) Can they cut the cake into three convex pieces like that? b) The next time grandma baked this cake, the whole family wanted to try it so they had to cut the cake into six convex pieces this way. Is this possible? c) Soon the entire neighbourhood has heard of the delicious cake. Can the cake be cut into $12$ convex pieces with the same conditions?