MathDB
Minimum number of bad lamps on a board

Source: MEMO 2017 T3

August 25, 2017
combinatorics

Problem Statement

There is a lamp on each cell of a 2017×20172017 \times 2017 board. Each lamp is either on or off. A lamp is called bad if it has an even number of neighbours that are on. What is the smallest possible number of bad lamps on such a board? (Two lamps are neighbours if their respective cells share a side.)