olymmath

ISL 2021 C3

    A thimblerigger has 2021 thimbles numbered from 1 through 2021. The thimbles are arranged in a circle in arbitrary order. The thimblerigger performs a sequence of 2021 moves; in the kth k^{\text {th }} move, he swaps the positions of the two thimbles adjacent to thimble kk. Prove that there exists a value of kk such that, in the kth k^{\text {th }} move, the thimblerigger swaps some thimbles aa and bb such that a<k<ba<k<b.

    Official text Transcription from NuminaMath olympiads, checked word for word against the official paper. Quoted with source.

    Official text: IMO 2021 Shortlist booklet, page 6.

    Solutions

    Official solution Solution 1 by the IMO Problem Selection Committee

    The terms of the source let olymmath link to this solution but not copy it. Read the solution (IMO official site).

    Locator isl/2021/c3 · Tag JMXF1KEMR7 · Edit this page on GitHub · Keys: j next, k previous