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Nine trolls (Posted on 2015-07-23) Difficulty: 2 of 5
Nine trolls are placed in the cells of a three-by-three square.
The trolls in neighboring cells shake hands with each other.
Later they re-arrange themselves in the square and the neighbors greet each other once more.
Then they repeat it again for the 3rd time.

Prove (or provide a counterexample) that there is at least one pair of trolls who didn’t greet each other.

Based on a problem in Russian "Kvantik",2012

No Solution Yet Submitted by Ady TZIDON    
Rating: 3.0000 (2 votes)

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Solution computer solution | Comment 6 of 9 |
Showing that a repeated handshake is unavoidable and therefore that some handshake (or more) is left out:

DefDbl A-Z
Dim crlf$, grid(3, 3, 3), shakes(9, 9), had$, mx


Private Sub Form_Load()
 Form1.Visible = True
 
 Text1.Text = ""
 crlf = Chr$(13) + Chr$(10)

 For row = 1 To 3
 For col = 1 To 3
  troll = troll + 1
  grid(1, row, col) = troll
 Next
 Next
 
 For row = 1 To 3
 For col = 1 To 3
   For dr = -1 To 1
   For dc = -1 To 1
    If dr * dc = 0 And dr + dc <> 0 Then
      r = row + dr: c = col + dc
      If r > 0 And r < 4 And c > 0 And c < 4 Then
        shakes(grid(1, r, c), grid(1, row, col)) = 1
        shakes(grid(1, row, col), grid(1, r, c)) = 1
      End If
    End If
   Next
   Next
 
 Next
 Next

 addOn 2, 1, 1
  
 Text1.Text = Text1.Text & crlf & mx & " done"
  
End Sub

Sub addOn(lvl, row, col)
  tr = 100 * lvl + 10 * row + col
  If tr > mx Then mx = tr
  DoEvents
  If row = 1 And col = 1 Then had$ = ""
  For newtroll = 1 To 9
    t$ = LTrim(Str(newtroll))
    If InStr(had, t) = 0 Then
      grid(lvl, row, col) = newtroll
      good = 1
      For dr = -1 To 1
         For dc = -1 To 1
             If dr * dc = 0 And dr + dc <> 0 Then
               r = row + dr: c = col + dc
               If r > 0 And r < 4 And c > 0 And c < 4 Then
                 If shakes(grid(lvl, row, col), grid(lvl, r, c)) > 0 Then good = 0: Exit For
               End If
             End If
         Next
      Next
      If good Then
        For dr = -1 To 1
            For dc = -1 To 1
             If dr * dc = 0 And dr + dc <> 0 Then
               r = row + dr: c = col + dc
               If r > 0 And r < 4 And c > 0 And c < 4 Then
                 shakes(grid(lvl, r, c), grid(lvl, row, col)) = 1
                 shakes(grid(lvl, row, col), grid(lvl, r, c)) = 1
               End If
             End If
            Next
        Next
       
        c = col + 1: r = row: l = lvl
        If c > 3 Then
          c = 1: r = r + 1
          If r > 3 Then
           l = l + 1: r = 1
          End If
        End If
        If l = 4 Then
         Text1.Text = Text1.Text & " found " & crlf
         For l2 = 1 To 3
         For r2 = 1 To 3
         For c2 = 1 To 3
           Text1.Text = Text1.Text & grid(l2, r2, c2)
         Next
         Text1.Text = Text1.Text & crlf
         Next
         Text1.Text = Text1.Text & crlf
         Next
         Text1.Text = Text1.Text & crlf
        Else
         savehad$ = had
         had = had + t
         addOn l, r, c
         had = savehad
        End If
        
        For dr = -1 To 1
        For dc = -1 To 1
         If dr * dc = 0 And dr + dc <> 0 Then
           r = row + dr: c = col + dc
           If r > 0 And r < 4 And c > 0 And c < 4 Then
             shakes(grid(lvl, r, c), grid(lvl, row, col)) = 0
             shakes(grid(lvl, row, col), grid(lvl, r, c)) = 0
           End If
         End If
        Next
        Next
      
      End If
      grid(lvl, row, col) = 0
    End If
  Next newtroll
End Sub

reports:

312 done

meaning that it got up to trying to fill the second column on the first row after the second shuffle (thus the 3rd layout), but couldn't get any further without a repeated handshake.

  Posted by Charlie on 2015-07-23 11:57:51
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