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Placing + and - signs in a 4 × 4 square

Source: Tournament of Towns Spring 2003 - Senior A-Level - Problem 6

June 15, 2011
combinatorics unsolvedcombinatorics

Problem Statement

The signs "++" or "-" are placed in all cells of a 4×44 \times 4 square table. It is allowed to change a sign of any cell altogether with signs of all its adjacent cells (i.e. cells having a common side with it). Find the number of different tables that could be obtained by iterating this procedure.