Problem

Source: Argentina TST Iberoamerican 2009 Problem 1

Tags: combinatorics unsolved, combinatorics



In the vertexes of a regular $ 31$-gon there are written the numbers from $ 1$ to $ 31$, ordered increasingly, clockwise oriented. We are allowed to perform an operation which consists in taking any three vertexes, namely the ones who have written $ a$,$ b$, and $ c$ and change them into $ c$, $ a-\frac{1}{10}$ and $ b+\frac{1}{10}$ respectively ( $ a$ becomes $ c$, $ b$ becomes $ a-\frac{1}{10}$ and $ c$ turns into $ b+\frac{1}{10}$ Prove that after applying several operations we can reach the state in which the numbers in the vertexes are the numbers from $ 1$ to $ 31$, ordered increasingly,anti-clockwise oriented.