• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 05:14
CET 11:14
KST 19:14
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT25Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book17Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Feb 9-15): herO doubles up2ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/0241LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16)46Weekly Cups (Feb 2-8): Classic, Solar, MaxPax win2Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker16
StarCraft 2
General
Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT Liquipedia WCS Portal Launched Kaelaris on the futue of SC2 and much more... How do you think the 5.0.15 balance patch (Oct 2025) for StarCraft II has affected the game?
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar) StarCraft Evolution League (SC Evo Biweekly) How do the "codes" work in GSL? LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16)
Strategy
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ? [A] Starcraft Sound Mod
External Content
Mutation # 513 Attrition Warfare The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 512 Overclocked Mutation # 511 Temple of Rebirth
Brood War
General
Do you consider PvZ imbalanced? Recent recommended BW games BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion CasterMuse Youtube
Tourneys
Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 1 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Zealot bombing is no longer popular? Fighting Spirit mining rates Current Meta
Other Games
General Games
Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Diablo 2 thread Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Megathread Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Ask and answer stupid questions here! Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TL MMA Pick'em Pool 2013
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Inside the Communication of …
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1752 users

College and a math problem

Blogs > Muirhead
Post a Reply
Muirhead
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States556 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-09-04 02:13:52
April 03 2008 23:13 GMT
#1
Harvard waitlisted me... It seems they rejected or waitlisted many of the top US mathematics students of the year (based on math competitions and Westinghouse). 9 of us are going to MIT . I can't help but think Harvard shot itself in the foot.

Here's a problem easier than the last few I've posted:
Given a 1000x1000 chessboard, n squares are colored red and the rest are colored blue. I am not able to pick 3 red squares such that two of them are in different columns and (a possibly different) two of them are in different rows. What is the maximum possible value of n, with proof?

****
starleague.mit.edu
micronesia
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States24754 Posts
April 03 2008 23:20 GMT
#2
How long would it take a computer program to calculate that by brute force? For me that would probably be the easier way haha.
ModeratorThere are animal crackers for people and there are people crackers for animals.
Myxomatosis
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States2392 Posts
April 03 2008 23:30 GMT
#3
is this an induction problem?
clazziquai
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
6685 Posts
April 03 2008 23:35 GMT
#4
On April 04 2008 08:13 Muirhead wrote:
Harvard waitlisted me... It seems they rejected or waitlisted 7 of the top 10 US mathematics students of the year (based on math competitions and Westinghouse). 9 of us are going to MIT . I can't help but think Harvard shot itself in the foot.

Here's a problem easier than the last few I've posted:
Given a 1000x1000 chessboard, n squares are colored red and the rest are colored blue. I am not able to pick 3 red squares such that two of them are in different columns and (a possibly different) two of them are in different rows. What is the maximum possible value of n, with proof?


Maximum possible value is OVER 9000! Proof? It's over 9000.....

WAIT

so you're one of the top 10 mathematicians in the USA? For high school students?


#1 Sea.Really Fan / #1 Nesh Fan / Terran Forever~
letsbefree
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
Canada123 Posts
April 04 2008 00:12 GMT
#5
wow on Harvard waitlist...thats pretty fucking impressive
hehe...
Daveed
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States236 Posts
April 04 2008 00:19 GMT
#6
MIT math is better anyway =P
il0seonpurpose
Profile Blog Joined January 2007
Korea (South)5638 Posts
April 04 2008 00:19 GMT
#7
Hey, its good to know you're smart but you don't have to be all cocky about how you're waitlisted and how harvard screwed up.
B1nary
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
Canada1267 Posts
April 04 2008 00:27 GMT
#8
Congrats on getting into MIT. Even you don't go to Harvard, you can take courses there since the two are so close.

solution to problem?
+ Show Spoiler +
1000, all in one row or column. Suppose n=1001. By the pigeonhole thing, two rows must contain red squares and 2 columns must contain red squares. This allows you to pick 2 from different columns and 2 from different rows and it's gg. I suck at presenting proofs XD. I lost so many points in high school contests from crappy presentation, lol.
Zalfor
Profile Blog Joined October 2005
United States1035 Posts
April 04 2008 01:48 GMT
#9
+ Show Spoiler +
the stupid answer seems like 1000. i don't see a better solution
555, kthxbai
raiame
Profile Joined December 2007
United States421 Posts
April 04 2008 02:23 GMT
#10
I can't seem to find a different answer, but it seems too simple... >.< I suck at math.
Who would you say are the top 10? I'd like to say Haitao and Jacob Steinhardt are some <.< >.>
Slithe
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
United States985 Posts
April 04 2008 02:25 GMT
#11
I'm really surprised that Harvard is rejecting/waitlisting so many of the top math students. Then again, the college admissions process has always seemed quite mysterious to me. MIT's cooler anyway.
Muirhead
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States556 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-04-04 02:56:05
April 04 2008 02:54 GMT
#12
B1nary the point is that there must be 3 squares such that 2 are in the same row and 2 are in the same column. Your proof just shows that out of all the (much more than 3) red squares, two are in the same row and two are in the same column. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something?

Raiame are you from TJ? Haitao and Jacob are both really really good and hardworkers too. I think Alex Zhai is the best in the class though. Haha you're not Haitao are you?
starleague.mit.edu
raiame
Profile Joined December 2007
United States421 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-04-04 02:58:06
April 04 2008 02:56 GMT
#13
Yeah I am. Bah, I remember a time when I was better than Jacob at math <.< Haitao was always better than me although I beat him in state mathcounts >< Also, I never got into proofs, still short answer =[
Yeah Zhai's probably best.
Jacob's going to MIT, but I'm under the impression that Haitao's not sure yet.
Dromar
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States2145 Posts
April 04 2008 03:20 GMT
#14
+ Show Spoiler +
1000 ez.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Sparkling Tuna Cup
10:00
Weekly #120
CranKy Ducklings17
LiquipediaDiscussion
PiG Sty Festival
09:00
Group D
ByuN vs ShoWTimELIVE!
PiGStarcraft1214
TKL 212
IndyStarCraft 185
BRAT_OK 165
Rex102
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft1214
TKL 212
IndyStarCraft 185
BRAT_OK 165
Rex 102
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 1909
Jaedong 674
Larva 591
Calm 566
PianO 487
actioN 457
Mini 373
Killer 228
Stork 179
Horang2 154
[ Show more ]
Rush 95
Dewaltoss 92
Pusan 90
Leta 84
ZerO 77
Sharp 65
hero 55
soO 47
Last 43
Noble 42
yabsab 38
ToSsGirL 33
Backho 31
sorry 25
Hm[arnc] 24
zelot 19
NotJumperer 15
Soma 13
Sacsri 11
NaDa 11
Sea.KH 11
Terrorterran 5
Britney 0
Dota 2
XaKoH 773
NeuroSwarm113
canceldota80
League of Legends
JimRising 455
Counter-Strike
m0e_tv841
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King51
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor50
MindelVK7
Other Games
ZerO(Twitch)13
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 18
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 30
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota268
League of Legends
• Jankos2018
• Lourlo866
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
13h 46m
Replay Cast
22h 46m
Wardi Open
1d 1h
Monday Night Weeklies
1d 6h
Replay Cast
1d 13h
WardiTV Winter Champion…
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
WardiTV Winter Champion…
3 days
The PondCast
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
[ Show More ]
Korean StarCraft League
5 days
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
SC Evo Complete
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 1st Round
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
WardiTV Winter 2026
PiG Sty Festival 7.0
Nations Cup 2026
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025

Upcoming

Acropolis #4 - TS5
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
Spring Cup 2026
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round Qualifier
Acropolis #4 - TS6
Acropolis #4
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
FISSURE Playground #3
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.