Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 7 / 50 of 300 #1450 of 1964

Problem 1450

National Olympiad second round; IMO P1/P4
Combinatorics Difficulty 7.0 Prove it

Edges of a planar graph GG are colored either with blue or red. Prove that there is a vertex like vv such that when we go around vv through a complete cycle, edges with the endpoint at vv change their color at most two times.

Clarifications for complete cycle:
If all the edges with one endpoint at vv are (v,u1),(v,u2),…,(v,uk)(v,u_1),(v,u_2),\ldots,(v,u_k) such that u1,u2,…,uku_1,u_2,\ldots,u_k are clockwise with respect to vv then in the sequence of (v,u1),(v,u2),…,(v,uk),(v,u1)(v,u_1),(v,u_2),\ldots,(v,u_k),(v,u_1) there are at most two jj such that colours of (v,uj),(v,uj+1)(v,u_j),(v,u_{j+1}) (jmod  kj \mod k) differ.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, then read the official solution and mark yourself. Be honest about it: the record is only any use to you if it is.

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Official solution

1. Euler's Theorem Application:
By Euler's formula for planar graphs, we have:
v−e+f=2 v - e + f = 2
where vv is the number of vertices, ee is the number of edges, and ff is the number of faces.

2. Triangulation Assumption:
Assume that all faces of the graph are triangles. This is possible for n≥3n \geq 3. In this case, each face has 3 edges, and each edge belongs to exactly 2 faces. Therefore:
3f=2e 3f = 2e
Substituting this into Euler's formula, we get:
v−e+2e3=2  ⟹  3v−3e+2e=6  ⟹  3v−e=6  ⟹  e=3v−6 v - e + \frac{2e}{3} = 2 \implies 3v - 3e + 2e = 6 \implies 3v - e = 6 \implies e = 3v - 6

3. Definition of Good and Bad Vertices:
Define a vertex vv as "good" if, when we go around vv through a complete cycle, the edges with the endpoint at vv change their color at most two times. Otherwise, the vertex is "bad".

4. Counting Bad Vertices:
Let the number of bad vertices be kk. For a vertex to be bad, the edges around it must change color at least three times. This means there are at least 3 color changes around each bad vertex.

5. Counting Color Changes:
Let cc be the total number of color changes in the graph. Each color change is counted twice (once for each vertex it involves), so:
2c≥3k 2c \geq 3k

6. Relating Color Changes to Faces:
Since each face is a triangle and each triangle has 3 edges, the total number of edges is related to the number of faces by:
2f=4v−8 2f = 4v - 8
Therefore:
2c≤2f=4v−8 2c \leq 2f = 4v - 8

7. Combining Inequalities:
Combining the inequalities, we get:
3k≤2c≤4v−8  ⟹  k≤4v−83 3k \leq 2c \leq 4v - 8 \implies k \leq \frac{4v - 8}{3}
Since kk must be an integer, we can simplify this to:
k≤v−2 k \leq v - 2

8. Conclusion:
Since k≤v−2k \leq v - 2, there are at most v−2v - 2 bad vertices. Therefore, there must be at least 2 good vertices in the graph.

■\blacksquare

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.