MathDB
TOT 055 1984 Spring J-O3 J-A3 4(N-1) consecutive on the boundary of NxN

Source:

August 19, 2019
combinatoricssquare tableconsecutive

Problem Statement

Consider the 4(N1)4(N-1) squares on the boundary of an NN by NN array of squares. We wish to insert in these squares 4(N1)4 (N-1) consecutive integers (not necessarily positive) so that the sum of the numbers at the four vertices of any rectangle with sides parallel to the diagonals of the array (in the case of a “degenerate” rectangle, i.e. a diagonal, we refer to the sum of the two numbers in its corner squares) are one and the same number. Is this possible? Consider the cases (a) N=3N = 3 (b) N=4N = 4 (c) N=5N = 5
(VG Boltyanskiy, Moscow)