2002 USAMO Problems/Problem 6

Problem

I have an $n \times n$ sheet of stamps, from which I've been asked to tear out blocks of three adjacent stamps in a single row or column. (I can only tear along the perforations separating adjacent stamps, and each block must come out of the sheet in one piece.) Let $b(n)$ be the smallest number of blocks I can tear out and make it impossible to tear out any more blocks. Prove that there are real constants $c$ and $d$ such that

$\dfrac{1}{7} n^2 - cn \leq b(n) \leq \dfrac{1}{5} n^2 + dn$

for all $n > 0$ .

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2002 USAMO (Problems • Resources)
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2002 USAMO Problems/Problem 6

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