Question 6

An 8 8 by 8 8 checkerboard has alternating white and black squares. How many distinct squares, with sides on the grid lines of the checkerboard (horizontal and vertical) and containing at least 4 4 black squares, can be drawn on the checkerboard?


The answer is 91.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Trevor B.
May 25, 2014

Take a look at different sizes of squares you can find on a chessboard. Every 2 × 2 2\times2 square is going to have 2 2 black squares and 2 2 white squares in it. Therefore, one of the squares meeting the conditions of the question would have to be larger than 2 × 2. 2\times2. Take a look at 3 × 3 3\times3 squares. These squares can either have 4 4 black squares (if the corners are white) or 5 5 black squares (if the corners are black). Therefore, any 3 × 3 3\times3 square or larger will meet the conditions of the problem.

The number of k × k k\times k squares on an n × n n\times n chessboard is ( n k + 1 ) 2 . (n-k+1)^2. For example, on a standard 8 × 8 8\times8 chessboard, there are 36 36 3 × 3 3\times3 squares, 4 4 7 × 7 7\times7 squares, and so on. Therefore, the answer to the problem is k = 1 6 k 2 = 91 \displaystyle\sum_{k=1}^6k^2=\boxed{91}

non sapevo che le piazze fossero quadrate, io le avevo capite rettangolari

Claudia Manotti - 7 years ago

Log in to reply

Il problema dice, "Quanti quadrati distinti..." non "Quanti rettangoli distinti..." (Sorry, ran this through Google Translate)

The problem says "How many distinct squares..." not "How many distinct rectangles..."

Trevor B. - 7 years ago

I keep getting 61 logically counting the squares..... If you can help me understand where i went wrong pls.. Reply thanks inadvance

Muhsin Haneefa - 7 years ago

No $1\times1$ squares or $2\times2$ squares contain four black squares. Every larger square does. We can choose the position of the upper left square of a $3\times3$ square in $6\cdot6=36$ ways, so there are 36 $3\times3$ squares. Similarly, there are 25 $4\times4$ squares, 16 $5\times5$ squares, 9 $6\times6$ squares, 4 $7\times7$ squares and 1 $8\times8$ square. There are a total of $36+25+16+9+4+1=\boxed{91}$ squares containing at least 4 black squares.

Lightning Eagle - 3 years, 3 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...