Two unit squares are selected at random without replacement from an grid of unit squares. Find the least positive integer such that the probability that the two selected unit squares are horizontally or vertically adjacent is less than .
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In an n × n grid, there are ( n − 2 ) 2 squares such that there are 4 squares adjacent to the square you chose, there are 4 n − 8 squares such that there are 3 squares adjacent to the square you chose, and lastly, the 4 corner squares such that there are 2 possible adjacent squares. This means we want the smallest integer n such that
n 2 ( n − 2 ) 2 × n 2 − 1 4 + n 2 4 n − 8 × n 2 − 1 3 + n 2 4 × n 2 − 1 2 < 2 0 1 5 1
We can simplify the inequality to
n 4 − n 2 4 n 2 − 4 n < 2 0 1 5 1 n 2 ( n + 1 ) ( n − 1 ) ( n ) ( 4 ) ( n − 1 ) < 2 0 1 5 1 n ( n + 1 ) > 8 0 6 0
And so we can deduce that the smallest n is n = 9 0