Putnam 2011 A1
- Session A
Define a growing spiral in the plane to be a sequence of points with integer coordinates such that and:
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the directed line segments are in the successive coordinate directions east (for ), north, west, south, east, etc.;
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the lengths of these line segments are positive and strictly increasing.
[Picture omitted.] How many of the points with integer coordinates cannot be the last point, of any growing spiral?
Curated text Kedlaya Putnam archive. Quoted with source.
Solutions
Human solution Solution 1 by Kiran Kedlaya and Lenny Ng
The terms of the source let olymmath link to this solution but not copy it. Read the solution (Kedlaya Putnam archive).