fatal numbers , numbers on vertices of regular 4k+1 polygon
Source: OIFMAT I 2010 day 1 p3 - Chilean Math Forum FMAT Olympiad https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c2484778_oifmat
September 25, 2021
combinatoricsregular polygongeometrygeometric transformation
Problem Statement
Let be a regular polygon with sides (where is a natural) whose vertices are (in that order ). Each vertex of is assigned a natural of the set such that no two vertices are assigned the same number. On the following operation is performed: Let be the midpoint of the side for (where is consider ). If , are the numbers assigned to and , respectively, the midpoint is written the number . By doing this with each of the sides, the vertices initially arranged are erased.We will say that a natural is fatal if for all natural , no matter how the vertices of are initially arranged, it is impossible to obtain equal numbers through a finite amount of operations from .a) Determine if the is fatal or not. Justify.
b) Prove that there are infinite fatal numbers.[color=#f00]PS. A help in translation of the 2nd paragraph is welcome. [hide=Original wording]Diremos que un natural es fatal si no importa cómo se disponen inicialmente los vértices de , es imposible obtener mediante una cantidad finita de operaciones números iguales a .