A square is triangulated in such way that no three vertices are collinear. For every vertex (including vertices of the square) the number of sides issuing from it is counted. Can it happen that all these numbers are even?
Problem
Source: Tournament of Towns Spring 2003 - Senior A-Level - Problem 7
Tags: combinatorics proposed, combinatorics
20.06.2011 08:35
Assume that is possible. Choose an example that has the least number of vertices. Call a vertex interior if it is not one of the vertices of the square. We claim that each interior vertex has degree at least $6$. If $I$ is an interior vertex and has two edges, say $IA, IB$. Then there must be two edges connecting $A,B$ and $I$ must be inside the region formed by the two edges. Then we can remove $I$ and the extra edge connecting $AB$ while keeping the other. The parity of the degrees are unchanged and we have a planar graph with fewer vertices. If $I$ is an interior vertex and has four edges, say $IA,IB,IC,ID$ in clockwise order. $A$ has even degree, hence there is at least another edge $AO$ that is next to $AB$ in the counter-clockwise order. Then we have the triangle $AOB$. We remove $I$, remove $AB$, and add edges $OD,OC$. The parity of the degrees are unchanges and the new graph has fewer vertices. Thus each interior vertex has degree at least $6$, and at most one of the vertices of the square has degree $2$ (otherwise we would have just a square and one diagonal). A simple edge counting using Euler's formula shows that this planar graph has too many edges, impossible.
10.04.2016 18:56
Here's another way of looking at this problem. Treat the triangulation as a planar graph. Take the dual graph of this planar graph $G^*$. The dual has every vertex of degree $3$ except one which has degree $4$, and every face is an even cycle. It is easy to prove that such a graph can't have an odd cycle (I can write the proof if anybody wants), so it is bipartite. However, one side of the bipartition has $1$ mod $3$ edges, and the other has $0$ mod $3$ edges, which is a contradiction.