Grasshopper Gerald hops around
Source: 43rd International Tournament of Towns, Senior A-Level P3, Fall 2021
February 18, 2023
combinatoricsTournament of Towns
Problem Statement
Grasshopper Gerald and his 2020 friends play leapfrog on a plane as follows. At each turn Gerald jumps over a friend so that his original point and his resulting point are symmetric with respect to this friend. Gerald wants to perform a series of jumps such that he jumps over each friend exactly once. Let us say that a point is achievable if Gerald can finish the 2020th jump in it. What is the maximum number such that for some initial placement of the grasshoppers there are just achievable points?Mikhail Svyatlovskiy