On the Domino Train

Consider a set of N ( N + 1 ) 2 \frac{ N (N+1) } { 2 } dominos which have faces of values 1 to N.
A train of dominos is a straight line of them, in which any 2 touching dominos display the same value.
Let F ( N ) F(N) be the minimum numbers of trains that are needed to use up all of these dominos. What is the value of F ( 2016 ) F(2016) ?


As an explicit example, F ( 3 ) = 1 F(3) = 1 because we have the train listed in the above image.


The answer is 1008.

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1 solution

Daniel Liu
Jun 25, 2015

Consider a graph with vertices labeled 1 , 2 , , 2016 1, 2, \ldots , 2016 . Then an edge connecting a a and b b on the graph corresponds to a domino with numbers [ a b ] [a|b] . A train is simply drawing edges from vertex to vertex without lifting up one's pencil which is an Eulerian path, and using up all the dominos corresponds to drawing a complete graph K 2016 K_{2016} plus a loop at each vertex that starts and ends there (corresponding to the dominoes with the same number on both ends).

Note that every single vertex of this graph has degree 2017 2017 which is odd. Because an Eulerian path can pass through every edge of at most 2 2 vertices with odd degree, each Eulerian path will only get rid of 2 2 odd-degree vertices (all the other vertices it passes through will only have an even number less edges untraveled, which doesn't affect its odd-degree status). Thus we must have at least 2016 ÷ 2 = 1008 2016\div 2=\boxed{1008} different Eulerian paths, or trains.

using up all the dominos corresponds to drawing a complete graph K 2016 K_{2016} .

This is slightly incorrect; using up all dominoes will produce K 2016 K_{2016} plus one loop on each vertex, making all vertices to have degree 2017 2017 . But the important thing is that each vertex has odd degree, so the remaining solution remains correct.

Ivan Koswara - 5 years, 11 months ago

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Ah right, forgot about dominoes that have the same number on both sides. Thanks for reminding, I'll edit my solution.

Daniel Liu - 5 years, 11 months ago

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