• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 22:39
CET 04:39
KST 12:39
  • 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
RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12
Community News
SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1812Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises1Weekly Cups (Dec 15-21): Classic wins big, MaxPax & Clem take weeklies3ComeBackTV's documentary on Byun's Career !11Weekly Cups (Dec 8-14): MaxPax, Clem, Cure win4
StarCraft 2
General
SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Chinese SC2 server to reopen; live all-star event in Hangzhou Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises Starcraft 2 Zerg Coach ComeBackTV's documentary on Byun's Career !
Tourneys
OSC Season 13 World Championship $5,000+ WardiTV 2025 Championship $100 Prize Pool - Winter Warp Gate Masters Showdow Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Winter Warp Gate Amateur Showdown #1
Strategy
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes Mutation # 504 Retribution Mutation # 503 Fowl Play
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion What monitor do you use for playing Remastered? (UMS) SWITCHEROO *New* /Destination Edit/ What are former legends up to these days?
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] LB SemiFinals - Saturday 21:00 CET [BSL21] WB & LB Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Game Theory for Starcraft Current Meta
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Mechabellum Beyond All Reason 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
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas Survivor II: The Amazon Sengoku Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI Russo-Ukrainian War Thread 12 Days of Starcraft Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL+ Announced Where to ask questions and add stream?
Blogs
National Diversity: A Challe…
TrAiDoS
I decided to write a webnov…
DjKniteX
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1248 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 States24751 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
The PiG Daily
21:15
Best Games of SC
SHIN vs sOs
Reynor vs Zoun
herO vs Classic
Solar vs Reynor
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 176
Ketroc 35
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 710
NaDa 76
Leta 59
Noble 55
ZergMaN 35
Hm[arnc] 21
Icarus 4
Dota 2
monkeys_forever358
LuMiX0
League of Legends
JimRising 643
C9.Mang0499
Counter-Strike
summit1g9677
tarik_tv5815
minikerr28
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox1465
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1308
BasetradeTV25
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH203
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• Azhi_Dahaki8
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota21381
Other Games
• Scarra1711
Upcoming Events
OSC
2 days
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
OSC
3 days
IPSL
3 days
Dewalt vs Bonyth
OSC
3 days
OSC
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Patches Events
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-12-29
WardiTV 2025
META Madness #9

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
Slon Tour Season 2
CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W2
Escore Tournament S1: W3
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Thunderfire SC2 All-star 2025
Big Gabe Cup #3
OSC Championship Season 13
Nations Cup 2026
Underdog Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
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 © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.