Checkerboard and Dominoes Problem
Suppose you have a checkerboard, and a set of dominoes. Each domino is twice the area of a square of the checkerboard. Clearly, you could cover the
entire checkerboard with thirty-two dominoes. But here's the question: Suppose you chopped off two opposite corners of the checkerboard. Can you now
completely cover the remainder of the board using thirty-one dominoes?
Solution
The answer to this question is: No, you cannot cover the checkerboard with 31 dominoes after two opposite corners have been removed.
But how to prove it? That's the question. The answer is amazingly simple.
If you are removing opposite corners, you are removing two squares of the same color. This leaves 32 squares of one color, and 30 squares of the other color. Since
every domino must cover one square of each color, it is impossible to fully cover the checkerboard.
Isn't that slick?
"Slick Math" is written by Douglas Twitchell, and hosted at The Problem Site.
Contents copyright 2008 by Douglas Twitchell. Contents of this page may not be reproduced without permission of the author.
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