Problem

Source: 2019 Romanian NMO grade VII P4

Tags: combinatorics, combinatorial geometry



A piece of rectangular paper $20 \times 19$, divided into four units, is cut into several square pieces, the cuts being along the sides of the unit squares. Such a square piece is called odd square if the length of its side is an odd number. a) What is the minimum possible number of odd squares? b) What is the smallest value that the sum of the perimeters of the odd squares can take?